Greetings From Ohio

So here I am in Ohio, done with class for the day so that gives me plenty of time to update you all on last weekend. Friday night my friends and I headed up north to a friends cabin for the weekend. I found a half marathon in the area so I could get somewhat of a longer run in Saturday morning. This meant I had to be good Friday night and not partake in the typical shenanigans and drinking games. That would have to wait until Saturday night. It's not a big cabin so I chose to sleep on the couch in the sun room of the cabin since it would be the quietest to spot for me to try and get rest. The guys knew I wouldn't be a happy camper if they screwed with me Friday night so we made a deal that if they let me sleep Friday night then I couldn't wuss out and go to bed early Saturday if I was tired from the race. Not a problem.

Saturday morning the alarm went off at 6:30 because I wanted to leave by 7 since the race was at 9 and it was supposed to take between 30 and 45 minutes to get there. Seven o'clock came and I was in the car and backing out of the driveway. I still don't know why but I decided not to clean the fresh snow off all the windows of the car (not mine either, I rode with a friend and borrowed his) just the windshield. Whoops....I managed to miss the end of the driveway and totally got stuck. ef me. I woke Ben up to help me get the car out of the yard...that's right I drove into the yard.... We ended up having to pull it out with his truck and I was now set back fifteen minutes. Damn. Next time I'm cleaning the windows off.

I got to Mt. Pleasant at eight even with the delay, got my bib and realized I had to use the restroom. The race started at a running store and they had one bathroom so as you can imagine there was a line. Luckily I got in line right away because I was in that line until 8:45. This only left 15 minutes to warm up before the start. I had wanted to get 2-3 easy miles in for a warm up and after all was said and done I got maybe a mile and half.

The race took place mostly on dirt roads that were frozen over with ice that had a fresh dusting of snow from the night before on top. Thank Jeebus for this dusting of snow too because it helped provide the little traction I got. That morning I decided to wear my cascadia's instead of my Kinvara's that I would normally race in since I wasn't sure what the terrain and snow would be like on the course. Good thing too because I'm sure the kinvara's wouldn't have provided nearly enough grip.


I believe these two pictures are in the first mile.



I'm in the green dead center

There were a lot more people in the half than I expected which made it fun. I half figured I'd be out there by myself for the most of the race but there was always someone right in front and right behind me. I took a honey stinger packet around mile seven and I have decided it was a mistake. It had begun to crystallize inside the packet probably mostly because I've had it since last spring and partly due to the cold. This meant I was having to chew it, then about half a mile later my stomach started to cramp up. I don't remember the last time I've had a stomach cramp while running. It lasted almost two miles and though my pace didn't drop too much I definitely couldn't start to pick up the pace like I had planned. Finally it went away just before the end of mile ten and I was able to push my pace a little. It had been pretty windy most of the race and the snow kicked up a little here and there at times making it difficult to see without squinting.

I Think this was in the middle of the race....brrr

I averaged a 6:45 pace for the last two miles and I really wanted to go faster but just couldn't seem to find another gear. My hip was a little sore but I think the big problem is I'm going to have to start incorporating speed work soon if I want to hit my goal time for Borgess in May.

I ended up setting a new PR by 6 seconds and I'll take it considering the lack of traction, wind and cramps. I finished 16th overall and second in the female 22-29 age group.....wait a minute.... that's right the results have myself and another guy (the overall winner) in the female AG instead of the male. I emailed the race director and he said he noticed the error and they'd get it straightened out. So maybe I'm wrong but it seems like usually they take the overall winner out of the AG categories so maybe just maybe I won my age group? If the rest of my actual AG is correct than I'd be second only to the overall winner so who knows. I'm not too concerned just thought it was funny when they called my name for the female AG win haha.

I got back to the cabin around 2 and we spent the day trying to play cornhole on the lake while ice fishing. Remember that wind I mentioned during the race? Well it was even worse on the lake, thus adding a new level of difficulty to cornhole. You literally had to aim the bags five feet to the left of the hole and let the wind carry it back. This actually made it more fun I think. As for ice fishing we came up with nothing like usual. It's a good thing we really don't care....or at least I don't care about it. We ate copious amounts of homemade chili and three of us polished off an entire package of Oreos in a matter of moments. We played Euchre for a bit which is always a good time even if we did lose our last game by one point.

In other news I heard from Cleveland and you are looking at one of the Official Pacers for the 2012 Cleveland Marathon! SCORE!!! I'll be pacing the 3:40 group so if you're going to be running Cleveland in May keep an eye out for me!

Did you notice the weather today!!! It's like 60 degrees here in Ohio and I saw it's 53 back home! This calls for a shorts run! In January! Double score!!

Hope you all had great weekends too!

Spring is a Time For Races and Baseball!

This week is about to get busy! I found out yesterday that I have to go to Columbus, OH next Monday evening for work. Thanks for the short notice. I'll be there through Wednesday night meaning I'll have to miss class Tuesday night. This means I need to get my assignments done for this week by Friday to turn them in early. Awesome. Lucky for me my Professor is letting me turn them in early otherwise I'd be really pissed about having to go to Ohio, instead I'm just annoyed. Anyways back to this week. Friday night I'm heading north to go to Ben's cabin and then Saturday morning I'm running in the Snowman's Half Marathon. It's not going to be that crazy of a week but busier than usual none the less.

My race Calendar is starting to shape up nicely! This is my current calendar of events:

• Kal-Haven Co-Ed Relay - March 24th
• Borgess Run For the Health of It 1/2 Marathon - May 6th 
• 5/3 RiverBank 25K (pacing the 8:00 group) - May 12th
• North Country Trail Run 1/2 Marathon - August 25th
• Detroit Marathon - October 21st

I'm sure I'll sprinkle in a few 5Ks and 10Ks in there for shits and giggles. I'd like to find a marathon in another state I haven't run one in before too. I know it will be tough to find one with only 47 states to choose from.... I'm thinking Ohio or Wisconsin just because of their proximity. I'm open to suggestions so feel free to send them my way. If you'd like to pay for me to run in another state more power to ya haha. I'm on the sub list for pacing the Cleveland marathon in the spring so maybe that will come through for me and I can knock off Ohio for free. Wouldn't that be nice :-)

Today I found yet another reason I can't wait for spring to arrive. As if running weren't enough reason. Lately if you're a Detroit Tigers fan we haven't had much in the good news department. First I heard Joel Zumaya was traded to Minnesota. I realize he's been injured more than not but I like the guy and when he's healthy he has one hell of a fastball. The second punch came last week finding out that Victor Martinez tore his ACL. This was a big blow to our lineup, but fear not for today it's come out that we've signed free agent Prince Fielder! BOOM! What's that you say? The Tigers have three of the biggest names in active baseball players? Damn straight we do! I'm now so excited for spring to get here it's not even funny.

How Early?

So Tuesday morning I got out of bed UBER EARLY  and ran 8 miles with my buddy Jonathon. Two days later we did it again. Friends have called us certifiable and enemies have called us worse. I'm just kidding....we don't have enemies. It was necessary to get out early Thursday to get a run in though. You see it was my sister's Birthday yesterday so we were going out to dinner as a family after work so there went my evening. Jon said he was running in the AM again so I was in. Best decision I made all week!

We set out for our run at 4:45 and I told Jon when I got there that if I were going to run this solo I never would have made it out of bed. He agreed lol. The nice thing about running that early is you pretty much have the road to yourself. As for the weather it was low 20's and the wind was up around 20mph! The roads were clear for the most part so that was good. The wind didn't hit us until the second half of the run. Right it our faces while going uphill. For four miles.

After the run I congratulated myself with the standard french toast bagel sandwich AND a blueberry bagel with wild blueberry cream cheese from Panera of course. I got home around 6:15 and it had just started spitting snow so I decided on a whim to put the car in the garage while I showered and got ready for work. Thank God for that decision. By the time I left for work just barely more than an hour later there was already a couple of inches of new snow that I did not want to clean off my car. Yes I'm that lazy.

All day friends were commenting on our FB status' about how crazy we were for getting up so early but then those same people changed their status to say something about how bummed they were to have to run in the snow! That's a win for the good guys!

Tomorrow's long run starts about 20 minutes north of the city and we are supposed to get up to six inches of fresh snow tonight so it could be another slushy long run tomorrow morning. We've got 16 miles on deck so we'll see how that goes.

Remember last year when I went up to my friends cabin and we drank all weekend, watched movies and played in the snow? If not here is part 1 and part 2 of that weekend. That weekend is coming up again next week! I was debating going or not this year though. Not because I didn't have fun last time because I did, but I knew if I go up there that I don't know the area and none of my friends I'm going with are runners so I'd be stuck doing a long run solo in an area I don't know. Not my idea of fun. Fear not a solution presented itself. I've been thinking about racing a half marathon sometime soon so I can gauge my performance and wouldn't you know it I found a race that Saturday less than a half hour from the cabin! Score!  The race is called the Snowman Half-Marathon.

So the plan is to go up to the cabin Friday, be responsible Friday night and then head to the race Saturday morning, then (hopefully) celebratory partying at the cabin Saturday night. It should make for a great weekend, I fully intend on eating too much chili Saturday night again because it's chili and it's what I do.

Hope you had a great week and your weekend is even better!

Don't Think About It Just Go With It

Are you a morning runner? I'm generally not. It's not that I don't like running in the morning, it's the getting out of bed that I have problems with. Though I do find it's easier for me to want to get out of bed for a run than it is for something I don't want to do, like say....work. I bring this up becuase last night I saw that a friend had posted on Facebook that he was going to run 8 miles at 4:45 this morning if anyone was interested in joining. Next thing I know I had responded that I was in! Wait. What? Clearly my fingers worked faster than my brain because it wasn't til after I responded that I realized I'd have to be up close to 4 in order to be at his place on time. Ironically this morning I read Christine's post about never regretting a run and tricks she uses to get out and get running and one of the big ones is to not think about it, just start your routine. Well that's basically what I had done. I didn't think about when I just saw an oppurtunity to run and went with it. Now I was committed. It was already 9:30pm so I had to finish getting things around for the next day and get ready for bed if I wanted any sleep at all.

My alarm went off at 4:10. Or at least I think it did. It was so early and I was soooo out of it I wasn't really sure what was going on. I actually started to panic for a few seconds because I knew I wasn't supposed to be up early, but couldn't recall for the life of me why or when. I actually had to look to see what time my alarm had been set for to decipher if I was up at the right time or not. I really hate that feeling like you might have overslept.

yeah that's 4:25...as in AM

I met Jonathan at his place and we were off. It was actually fairly warm this morning (for January); I think it got up to 42 when we started. This meant shorts! It was pretty damn foggy out this morning and obviously still dark out so we both had our headlamps on. His apartment is tucked back in a neighborhood and even though we hit a few decent sized hills  today I think the hardest part of the run was trying not to fall on the ice that was the non-plowed road leading in and out of the neigborhood. I'm not kidding it's like the road has never seen a plow before, slush and ice everywhere.

All in all it was a great run. It was good to get out and run with someone and seeing as how the temperature has dropped close 15 degrees today and it's snowing like a bitch out right now the morning run was definitely a good call. It took us almost exactly an hour to run 8 and some change, even still I was at Panera for my celebratory French Toast Bagel Sandwich ten minutes before they opened. That's right I'm not above rewarding myself. I didn't have to be to work til 8 so I was able to go home, shower, eat and relax for a while which was kind of nice.

Maybe getting up early for a run isn't as horrible as it seems in my head. I just need to work on going to bed earlier (harder than it sounds) and maybe this could turn into a good habit...maybe.

I guess winter's here

Remember last Thursday when I got to run in shorts in January? You should, it was less than four days ago. It was 45 degrees that day but not for long. That night we went from the best January I can remember in Michigan to a typical winter in Michigan. I woke to find that the weathermen weren't kidding and we had plenty of snow covering the landscape and a few more inches to come throughout the course of the day. I'm glad we have had a mild winter thus far so I won't complain about the snow too much I just hope it doesn't stick around an extra couple of months since it took its time getting here.

The schedule for yesterdays long run said 18 miles which would be a welcomed break from the 19 we ended up running last week. I decided to crash on a friends couch Friday night because his apartment is right downtown meaning it was right around the corner from Gazelle Sports our launch site for the mornings run. During the pre run meeting they told us the typical "be careful" running message but also reminded us to adjust our pace and distance accordingly since the snow would make it more difficult.

Even though you could tell the overall group was smaller because people were detered by the snow it seemed like our group was bigger than ever. The pace group I've been running with is the 7:30 - 8:00 group and all of our runs throught the first four weeks we averaged right on the low side. Our pace group leader even joked she might lose her (volunteer) job if we go any faster. That would not be a problem this week.

Ever forget to use the rest room before a run? I have a couple times in the past and it's no fun for sure so now it's become the most important part of my pre run check list. Even though I made a deposit to the porcelain savings and loan pre run I still felt like I had to duece it up only a few miles in. That's right a few miles in...to a 16 mile run! (we agreed to downsize due to the snow) It might have had to with the large pizza and four guinness I put away the night before but who knows for sure. If I had to pee I for sure would have grabbed a tree or bush somewhere but this was a little less mid run friendly. I chose to hold it in and though it was tough I made it. When we finished I ran straight to my friends Apt. got inside and destroyed his bathroom haha. That's a good friend!

The snow definitely made the run more difficult. I was wearing my Cascadias hoping to get a little better traction out of the trail shoe. Quite a few people had on Yak Trax for the same reason. I have a pair but besides the fact I forgot them in the closet, I wanted to see how the trail shoes would do on their own. I think they helped a bit but like everyone else seemed to say, I was struggling for traction. We ended up carrying a 7:43 pace overall which for the conditions was great. The last couple miles were the hardest for sure. The wind had picked up and the snow was turning to slush that was no help when it came to traction. I also started to notice about four miles out that the finger tips on my left hand were freezing! They were practically numb by the end of the run. The fingers on my left hand were completely warm. I was wearing a pair of the brooks gloves with the flip out wind shield that makes them more like a mitten and I was using that and even pulled my hand inside my coat sleeve but nothing seemed to help. I realized when we finished that my watch seemed a little tighter than when I put it on. I think my wrist swelled up a little and caused the watch to choke off the circulation to my hand so I'll have to watch that next time. Has this ever happened to you? I've never really noticed anything like that before.

After the run and destroying my friends bathroom we met up for delicious breakfast. My favorite part of the weekend long run. I don't think the restaurants are as excited to see 20 or so of us sweaty runners pour in at once but they treat us well none the less.

When I got home I found my dad had stopped by and was finishing snow blowing the driveway! He rocks! My sister and I sure are spoiled sometimes! I shoveled what was left of the walk and drive for a little cross training. While we worked the dogs played. They seem to be more excited about the snow than I was. Poor Obie though had too much fun and broke a toe nail off. Luckily he's a pretty calm boy so he let me dress it up with some makeshift gauze and put a sock over it held on with what else but duct tape. My dad, sister and I then placed bets on how long it would take him to get it off haha! When he wasn't licking the sock he just layed there looking dejected. A look that he's perfected over the years.

Today I put in a half hour on the treadmill for recovery to loosen up the legs. I put on the ipod and really focused on my form today and it acutally made the dreadmill run seem to go by much quicker. I'm still not a fan of treadmill running but it was 10 degrees today and I figured by the time I got warm i'd be finished with my run so outdoors wasn't worth it. I had a friend say he ran 17 miles on the treadmill yesterday. He called me crazy for running outdoors yesterday; I called him certifiable for running that long on a treadmill. We agreed to disagree.

Obie enjoying his new footwear!



I hope you all had a good weekend as well and enjoyed the mild start to winter as much as I did!

Shorts in January? Yes Please!

     We are a week and a half into January and I just went for a run in shorts.....and I'm in Michigan! The down side is the forecasted snow storm coming tomorrow. Tonight though while it was 45!!! I got in a nice moderately easy paced 5 mile run in a pair of shorts and a long sleeve half zip. Doesn't get much better than that! We've been pretty lucky so far this year when it comes to winter weather. I'm just hoping it doesn't arrive with vengeance!

     I love music, I'd listen to it all day if I could and some days come pretty close to it. I don't always take my Ipod along on  my runs though especially if I'm running with someone else. I've realized I go through phases with music, country for a while, then more rock/pop music for a bit then a mixture of the two and so on. Lately though it's been more pop than anything else. I don't really have an explanation as to why but it also seems like a lot of it is fairly new...at least to me. I decided I'd share a list of the ten songs I've been hooked on lately.

Bruno Mars - Mary You 

I'm way behind the bandwagon on him but a few of his songs are growing on me.

David Guetta - Without You ft. Usher

Can't help but tap your foot.

Mumford and Sons - Ghosts That We Knew

I absolutely love their sound and can't wait for a new album!

Adele - Turning Tables

I love her voice and could listen to it all day long no joke.

Death Cab For Cutie - Stay Young Go Dancing

My favorite off their new album

Blues Traveler - Hook

Who couldn't use a little 90's harmonica here and there?

Zac Brown Band - Colder Weather

I love this band but unfortunately we're about to get hit with colder weather...for real....brrr

Young the Giant - Cough Syrup

"Life's to short to even care at all whoa oh!"

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

The best cover of this song in my opinion, second best the Canadian Tenors...they would have been first but....you know....Canadian....jk

Eric Church - Sinners Like Me

Aren't we all...

      I hate it when I really want to hear a song and it's no where to be found, thank God for the Ipod! There are days I swear I wouldn't make it through work without music.  I feel like Pandora has opened me up to a lot of new music that I might not have heard otherwise.

      I don't know about you but I've kind of half assed followed training plans for most of my big races but this time I'm going to try and put one together myself for my spring races. I think my big key race right now is going to be the Borgess half marathon in early May. I'm excited for it because I want to see how I've progressed since last year. I still want to get a marathon in around spring time too but we'll see. Anyways I've been reading "Run Fast" by Hal Higdon and I've got another of his books to read also for some input for the plan. I have heard people have good results using the Macmillan calculator for pace planning too so I'll incorporate that too. Lastly I've been doing my long runs on Saturday's with the  Kalamazoo Area Runners and we've been following the Semi Elite schedule for long run distance so I'll probably stick with that for the long runs. After I get this all figured out (hopefully soon...like this weekend) I'll let you know what I've come up with so you can all tell me what I'm about to do wrong.

      Oh yeah side note today was an all around decent day, especially because I fought an erroneous parking ticket this morning and got it overturned! Winner, winner, this guy! The best part is when I tell people it's only a 10 dollar ticket and they look at me like I'm crazy for fighting it. No ten bucks won't break the bank, I'll spend more than that on Gu for the weekends run but it's the principle of the matter. Most of our tickets are issued by a private company not the police and they aren't held accountable for writing bogus tickets unless you take it to a magistrate so that's what I did. Best part was their system "lost the images of my vehicle parked illegally" lucky for me I took pictures and didn't lose them. Score board ~ Jordan - 1 ~ Central City Parking - 0

      Any songs you've had stuck in your head lately that you feel like I have to hear? Did you get to run in shorts today and feel like you're going to have to wear a ralphie-esque snow suit tomorrow?



How fast did we say? Whoops.

Do you ever intend to run one pace on a training run and ultimately end up throwing that idea out the window? It sucks when it happens because something isn't right (insert random ache/pain/injury here) but sometimes, like it did for me tonight it goes the opposite way and it's pretty awesome! My hip has been off and on a nuisance lately so when I set up the roll call for tonight's group run I was apprehensive about picking a pace. My hip had been bothering me at work this morning and I wasn't sure how it would react to the planned 8 miles. I left the pace open and figured someone would speak up and sure enough my friend Andrew said he planned on 7-7:15..... If the ole hip would allow I figured that pace would be good so I agreed with the side note that I needed permission from my hip.

About half way through the day when the punk hip was being particularly annoying I decided to try and stretch it out a bit. I grabbed the knee on the same leg and pulled it slightly up and over in front of my other leg. After a couple quick "pops" (slightly unnerving) I let go and noticed that throughout my range of motion it felt pretty good! Almost night and day! This gave me hope that tonight's run might go well!

Half way between home and our running location I realized that for the second time in recent memory I had forgotten the Garmin at home! Bugger! Last time I went back and got it because I wasn't sure who was going to be there and if they would have one to track us. On this occasion though I didn't have the same luxury of time. I also knew that at least one person showing up tonight would have a watch.

We started out the 8 mile figure 8 loop two abreast, four deep, headlamps in full effect casting shadows all around us and chatting away. I haven't looked at our pace but guessing by effort we were right around 7 flat for the first mile. Did I mention that I was in the front row of this train of runners? I was talking away with my friend Nick who is a much faster runner than I am usually but is still coming back from an injury so he's more my speed right now. Nick's shoe came untied a couple miles in so he dropped off and said he'd catch up. This was the first I really realized that we were moving along at a good clip! Jeff slid up next to me for the next mile or so before dropping back and Joe stepped up in his place. I mentioned earlier that we were chatting away well that had pretty much ceased, and remember those headlamps casting shadows all around us? Well I soon realized that our shadows were no longer being cast in front of us from the lights behind. I figured out why when I looked back as we rounded the next turn and saw no one. There was no one behind us anymore it was just Joe and I! Apparently the other 6 had more sense than us and said to hell with that ridiculous pace! I made a comment to Joe that we had lost our companions and asked him how fast we were going. He had remembered his watch. So responsible that Joe is! He informed me that we were cookin along at or around 6:40!!!! Whoops! Though I could tell we were streaking along I still felt strong and the hip wasn't saying shit otherwise so I figured I'd keep it up as long as I could. Besides no one wants to be the dick that sets a blistering pace and can't keep it to the end. That's just not cool.

We finished up our 8 miles without a problem other than a couple of quick side stitches when I smelled fresh fries being cooked at Wendy's as we ran past and a couple  of other restaurant smells that made me want nourishment! We waited for the others to get back and took our licks for completely disregarding the agreed upon speed limit haha. All in all it was a great run and just what I needed! When I got home and checked my email I found that I most likely will be a pacer for a decent size race near here this spring! That was the cherry on top of an already great night. After it's official I'll let you know when and where and who knows you might even end up running a race this spring with yours truly and I promise this time I'll stick to the agreed upon pace!

Hope everyone else had a good start to their week!