Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Family Times...

Run: 4 Miles
Time: 40:28
Pace: 10:04

Before I get to my run this past weekend was a lot of fun goofing around at my sister's (Marcy Krueger) house.

See, Marcy Krueger, my sister, asked me why I never put her name (Marcy Krueger) on my blog. So, there you go Marcy Krueger!:) My other sister Connie Wolfe asked the same question. Ok, family tree time, Marcy is married to John whos only flaw is the fact that he is a USC (Gamecock fan) and a Green Bay Packer fan. Marcy and John have three kids, John Edward, David, and Ellie. Gracie had a blast playing with her cousins all afternoon. Connie came with her buddy "Hank", 10 year old black lab. My brother Alan also made the trip over to Marcy's house. He resides in the sunshine state and is proudly an Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, and Sixers fan like myself. See, you don't understand we were born Philly fans!:)

Anyway, it was really nice to be able to spend time with family and I hope we didn't get the kids to "jacked up" for you Marce and John? Thanks for the afternoon!

Yesterday was back to the grind, with a full day of work and class at night. Got out of class right at 8pm and raced home and was out pounding the pavement by 9pm. What a great night for a run with the temp right around 77 degrees and a slight breeze. No ipod, just me and the open road. I did experience some slight knee sorness right around the 3.5 mile mark. After my cooldown and stretching it seem to go away and is not giving any trouble at all this morning. I hope tonight's run will go just as smooth. I probably won't get home tonight until 10pm so it will be a late run by moonlight!

My nutrition was super clean yesterday with 65% of my calories coming from carbohydrates. I am still dropping weight and hope to be down under the 200 pound mark by the end of the week. I'm looking to drop at least 10 pounds for the month of October and 5 additional pounds before the race on the 10th of November. I have very carefully calculated my food intake and will not be afraid to up the calories if I start to suffer on my runs. I will be eating a surplus of calories for my long runs with the additional days severely cut back. Again, I will not be afraid to change that if I start to suffer. With the calories a little low yesterday my run went really well last night.

I'm getting excited about the fishing trip this weekend and Friday can't come fast enough. I'm really looking forward to running my 12 miles on flat ground Sunday morning. Should be a fun weekend. Well, back to work I must go, have a great Tuesday. - Jason

Friday, September 21, 2007

Ups & Downs...

Well, another week passes and all is ok. I'm a little behind on my mileage and I would not be telling the truth if I said it doesn't bother me, it does.

Right now I can go out and run between 10-13 miles and my training plan has me at 16 this weekend. I could sit here and blame that on the addition of night classes and busy work schedule but there is no excuse not to get out and get those runs in. Reality is 26.2 is just around the corner and I refuse to fail. These next 50 days are going to go by very fast and before I know it I will be standing at the start line ready to tackle 26.2.

Tomorrow we are headed over to my sister's house which is about an hour and half away to hang out with my two sisters and brother. My brother got there tonight to spend the weekend. He lives in Orlando, FL and was in Columbia, SC for a conference and decided to pop over to spend the weekend. It should be a fun time hanging out with everyone. Gracie really enjoys playing with her cousins. Sunday is my long run and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to run the full 16 but will be happy to get in at least 14. I'm going to start out early and give it 100% effort.

I'm really excited about next weekend. My father-in-law and I are going deep sea fishing off the coast of North Myrtle Beach with a few other friends. I will be taking my running clothes to get my Sunday long run of 12 miles done....I'm looking forward to flat road down on the coast!:) We are going to be on a 40 footer about 40 plus miles out all day Saturday. We leave the dock around 6am and come back in around 5pm. I've never been deep sea fishing and I'm looking forward to it. I will be taking lots of pics of the weekend fun. We leave around 3pm next Friday and come back early Sunday night.

I don't have to teach a class next week which will be a nice a break and give me the chance to catch up on some of my other work. Normal class schedule next week Mon-Thurs night with one test on Wednesday night. I will be studying some this weekend to prepare. Then on to spend the weekend out on the water. It will be another busy week but what week isn't busy anymore?

Gracie is having a lot of fun at school and is doing really well. I really enjoyed being home tonight and getting a chance to actually spend some quality time with her. Every minute is so precious now because I don't get a chance to spend a lot of time with her Mon-Thurs and it really breaks my heart. It's so hard to get home after work and rush around trying to get ready for class with her not wanting me to go. Walking out that door never gets easier for me. By the time I get home she is already fast asleep. I feel like I'm missing so much and I sometimes question why I'm doing what I'm doing with these classes. Is it worth it? If it is, why does it hurt to walk out that door every night? When I get into class and start to soak up all this new knowledge it feels like I'm doing the right thing, it feels like, yes, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Still, when I walk out of those classrooms all I want to do is get home and be with Ashli and Gracie. It has been an emotional roller coaster for me the past 2 weeks. I do know that without my faith and family I wouldn't have made it this far.

So, I move forward, taking one day at a time and at the end of every night I pray and ask God for the strength to do it all over again. - Jason

Friday, September 14, 2007

Time is Flying Away...

Had my last test last night at least for a couple of weeks. I think I did ok on it at least I hope I did. I Did really well on my first two Anatomy & Physiology tests and I just hope I can keep that up.

Running is going great and I've added two days a week of strength training and the shoulder seems to be holding up. My strength really didn't drop off that much over the last month, I wish cardio fitness adapted as well as muscle fitness. I'm glad to finally be in better control of my time management. Next week I'm teaching another week long class so my nose will be in books all day every day.

Gracie is doing so well at school and her teacher told Ashli the other day you would never guess she had such a hard time that first day. Such a proud daddy I am! This morning Gracie told me her class is going eat green eggs and ham but she was very quick to tell me not to worry because it is just green food coloring and they will still taste ok! lol! She's excited!:)


I've been able to maintain my weight really well even through my vacation and now I'm starting on a good downward trend. I really don't have that much more weight to drop so the slower the better over the next two months. I can't believe my marathon is only two months away. This year has seemed to just fly right on by. I have a feeling these next two months are going to go by just as fast. Well, I better get back to work, so much to do and I've already wasted too much time this morning. Make it a great Friday! - Jason

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Running Forward...

Wow, already a crazy week. This past Saturday I was able to get my 13 mile long run in. Of course, I decided to run in the hottest part of the day, I will never learn!:)

Once I hit mile 5 it was more of a run walk and by mile 10 it was mostly walking. By mile 13 both my calves cramped up and it was all I could do to hobble into the house. Actually my in-laws house. I ran from my house to theirs. It was really a nice change from running an out and back. There were some really nice hills along the way too. I'm going to do it again this weekend however it will be in the early morning hours. I rested on Sunday and did some light strength work, specifically core work on Monday night after class.

Tuesday I did some light strength work with hammer curls, tricep kickbacks, bench press, lat pulldown, dumbbell lat raises, dumbbell front raises, decline press, straight bar curls, cable chest fly, dumbbell chest press, cable tricep pushdowns, and seated cable row. Several exercises there but only 2 sets per and lower weights were used. Today I did 4 miles at lunch, I'm scheduled to run 7 today but I only had time for 4 miles so tonight after my class I will do the remaining 3 miles. Tomorrow is another 4 mile run with Friday being my rest day and I will do my 15 mile run either Saturday morning or Sunday morning, haven't decided yet.

I got a 77 out of 100 on my first Exercise Physiology class which I'm really happy with. The test was really difficult and I probably only studied about an hour. Hopefully I can do lots better on the next test with more studying. I will find out the results of my first two A&P test tonight. I feel I did ok on those. I'm starting to get into a good routine with school and hopefully that will lead to better time management for studying, fitness, family, and work. Not in that order!:) Family is always first!

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday night! - Jason

Friday, September 7, 2007

On the road again...

Last night I actually got a decent run in. I decided to leave the Garmin at home and just go out and run, no time, no distance just me and the road. I need to do more of that. I just hate not knowing how far I've run but that was not the point last night. I'm taking this weekend to clear my mind and get refocused on this 26.2 that will be coming my way very soon.

Ashli took Gracie to the Doctor's yesterday and they found what we thought might be her problem with this coughing....Asthma! Hopefully its virus induced asthma and not the full blown variety. Got the correct meds and viola last night she did not wake once through the night and I actually got 6 hours of straight sleep! What a relief for Gracie though, I know it was very frustrating for her and Ashli.

My second test last night in Exercise Physiology was probably one of the harder tests I've taken. Test was on the Bio Energy Cycle and the direct source of energy for muscle contraction, ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) both for anaerobic and aerobic production. Sounds like fun huh!? I won't bore you with the details! Anyway, the second class last night is my wellness and fitness class which is a lot of fun. Last night we spent about and hour doing different body weight workouts, was a lot of fun and a great stress reliever for me. The run after that was even better. Monday night I have my second Anatomy and Physiology test on the first four chapters. So, this weekend will be some serious studying. I've gotten through chapter one during breaks and lunch at work and just have three more to go.

Hopefully I can get myself refocused here this weekend and get my runs completed. It's gut check time, how bad do I really want it? Marathon is less then 70 days away and I'm only sitting at the 10 mile distance in my training. It's time to go to work.

Enjoy the weekend! - Jason

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Moving Forward...

This week has been really crazy so far. I had my first test tonight in Anatomy and Physiology and I feel like I did really well. I'm learning quite a bit, just makes for a long day. I have another test tomorrow night in Exercise Physiology and it will be a challenge.

Gracie still has this really nasty cough that seems to start later at night and sometimes last for an hour. Ashli is going to take her in to see the doctor tomorrow just to make sure there is nothing else going on. I've been going on about three to four hours a sleep a night for the past week and Ashli has had less then that a few times. Gracie did have her first day back today since being sick and there were no tears as she just kissed Ashli and walked right into her classroom, no issues! She is really starting to like school and has a blast while she's there. Now if we can just get her cough under control we will all get better sleep.

My diet has been really in check over the last week or so but the running has not been there, that changes this week. I have been working out which is part of my Wellness and Fitness class on Tuesday and Thursday nights, some of which was running but mostly more circuit training in nature. We also completed a few fitness assessment test which I feel I did pretty good on most but found I was really lacking in the flexibility department. Hopefully I can improve over the next several months with that.

I hope everyone has a great Thursday and I will update again before the week is out. Jason