No runs for the working

So this week has been awful for running. I have worked well into or through my three hour lunches this week and then not gotten home before late either. By the time I had two seconds to even think about running, I was too tired to even walk without stumbling. So I am hoping that this will not be the trend as my marathon training begins. Sadly I would rather not work than not train for the marathon. So keep your fingers crossed and maybe the week will turn around.

An Uncle on Father's Day

Well it finally happened, as of about 2 months ago I am an uncle. As a biased member of a very close family, I truly believe that this baby boy is very cute. Of course most everyone believes that any baby related to them is cute, but we have all seen some ugly babies. So some people must be mistaken, not me of course. So most of the herd came to my parent's house to enjoy a BBQ and see the newest addition to the family. Now we all have spent many evenings visited the cute little one, but any additional chances to see the little screamer we all jump at. Surprisingly, I was the only one willing to deal with him when he was crying. I find that this is the best time to carry the devil, as no one can blame me for the crying and if he settles down, I am a miracle worker.
I love when i am successful at calming him, it is like taming some wild ferocious beast with the only injuries I could sustain being pierced ear drums and vomit stained clothing. I avoided the pierced eardrums but not the vomit. The only disturbing part of the vomit was realizing that it consisted of milk from my sister's breasts. Back to the psychologist for me I guess. Anyways. . . since I was spending the day at the parents I had to be sure to get up a little earlier to get in my run. It was an 8 mile day and it went fairly well. I finished the first 5 miles at a record pace feeling little to no fatigue, then I hit a wall and was forced to walk for a few moments. This gave me the chance to look around and enjoy the forest preserve around me. Tiny little toads or frogs (I did not look too close) about the size of my pinky fingers nail were crossing the pass near a small quagmire(sp?). There were also several multi-colored birds singing away and very few people. This allowed me to remove my shirt again. It is amazing how self-conscious I am about showing my belly. I hope that this training will evoke some superhuman sense of pride within me, but time will tell.
As I finished my run I headed back to my car excited with the knowledge that I could still probably squeeze in another 2 or 3 mile. But, I will stay with Hal Higdon's plan for now. I am not sure if I will be able to stick with it this week as I have a few dinner meetings and I doubt I will find time to sneak to the gym over lunch. In hope of doing such I think I will pack my bag tonight and maybe even pre-set the coffee pot to facilitate a punctual departure in the morning. That is all for now, I do wonder if anyone is reading this. For some reason I have not told anyone about this blog yet.

A 3 mile night

After finishing my scheduled 3 mile run I felt guilty stopping. I have no idea with this started, but I am trying to follow a program and not overdo it, but after running longer distances it seemed odd to stop at 3. So a did a tiny amount of work on some of the machines. I hope this will be a good indicator on how the rest of the summer goes. Time will tell. Tomorrow is a 5 mile day and I will be able to run outside, hopefully. With the help of some spf 50 I have avoided being burnt so far. My pale skin finds UV rays from miles away if I even miss 1 square millimeter of pastey flesh.

A Bad Day

So I am not too superstitious, but after yesterdays posting I succesfully doomed today. I had a no help at work today whatsoever. My three hour lunch turned into a 12 minute trip to Wendy's to wolf food before my appointments started up. Thankfully my clients this afternoon were thoroughly enjoyable. They were some of my most pleasant and intelligent regulars with prudent questions and realistic goals. They were very willing to listen to my advice and appreciative of my time. At the end of the day one of my receptionist told me not to look at the appointment book for tomorrow as she was already hyperventilating. She was right we are already fully booked and there are 3 additional appointments which we are to squeeze in at some point. So I headed home with explicit goal of not thinking about work.
A cousin of mine who has run 3 marathons came over and brought a few books on marathons for me to read for inspiration. We headed out to a local pub for a few drinks and caught up. Today turned into my rest day now I need to make sure tomorrow I get in 3 miles. Well time to call it a night and erase the memory of this horrible day. I will remember the good that I have done since that is why I do what I do.

A Good day

For the first time in over 2 years I have gotten out of work on time for my lunch break and at the end of the day. This may seem trivial to some, but it was so bad for a while that I was working through my 3 hour lunch break without even the most subtle hint of acknowledgement from the office manager or my boss. I had a gym membership for 4 months where I was only making it there on Sundays. That is a hell of a lot of money to be throwing away. So this is why I was sooooo excited today. I even got a 6 mile run in tonight at a forest preserve and saw a large doe grazing. I had intending on only running 5 miles, but it felt so good that I pushed a little further.
We will see if tomorrow goes as well. I have my fingers crossed. I am meeting with a cousin of my mother tomorrow to talk about training for the Chicago marathon. She has run several marathons including Boston, so I am really looking forward to talking with her. If there are any marathoners reading this, this neophyte would appreciate any tips or warnings you have. If you live in the greater Chicagoland area and know of great places to run, let me know. I do enjoy running on the lakefront, but since I have moved out to DuPage it is a little time consuming to make it there during the week. So to end a good day I will treat myself to a nice glass of wine. I have recently been trying different Malbecs and been pleasantly surprised.

Healthy Living

So it seems to me that not many people care about their health. I will admit that I do not always eat the best food, but I do try to minimize the junk food snacks. Now I should not talk tonight since I just got back from meeting two of my brothers for beers and pizza. I did stop after two beers and 3 slices but now I am getting my gym bag ready for tomorrow. People do not seem to act on their obesity until a health concerns slaps them in their face. Luckily for me this slap missed me and hit a couple of people in my family.
What is worse to me is that the same people who do not eat well feed their pets in the same unhealthy way. I would venture to say that a good 80% of house pets are overweight and 50% of those are actually clinically obese. When they are told this they do not act quickly to reform their ways, they take this as a person insult and choose not to believe it. Part of this is that the public does not have a concept of what an in shape animal looks like. The best example came a couple of years ago when I was out with one of my labs and several people made comments on how skinny he was. Others asked what he was a mix of since he looked too svelt to be a labrador. One woman asked if he was feeling better. This confused me until she explained that she assumed he had been ill in the recent past.
To make a long story short I think that I will make it my mission to lead by example and to be very vocal about living a balanced life. This is actually a very selfish idea. I need some pressure to keep myself on tract. I do love a glass of wine, a pint of Guinness, a good deep dish pizza and countless other calorie packed foods. I know I would never give these up, but I will minimize my intake and guilt myself into more exercise when I do overindulge. By putting it in writing I am more likely to stay on track.

10 miles and then some

Today started early for a Sunday. I had to stop by work to check on a few things before I met up with some friends for a run. Unforetunately, this made me late and I never met up with them. This did allow for mile 10 mile planned run to turn into 11 miles after a wrong turn. The trail was new to me and I took a turn that went up some unimproved trails which dead ended forcing me to double back. This did allow some quiet time to walk and even take my shirt off without embarassing myself. Tragically even though I have lost a lot of weight I am not about to walk around with my shirt off until I have a six pack to make others actually want to look at me. As of now my pasty pale skin is white enough to reflect enough sun to signal the space station.
I wore my new fuel belt today and thank God I did because I was sweating like mad. It was humid and in the upper 80's by the time I finished. I knew I had to pace myself and thankfully I am not too sore yet. I ended up walking more than I would have hoped to, but I am glad I did.
With training for Chicago officially starting this week I am both excited and nervous that I will not have enough time to keep up with work being so crazy. The odd thing is running has been a great stress reliever for me when work has been crazy, but recently it has been so crazy I cannot even fathom running at the end of the day Mornings are not an option for me, I have tried to get up early but I just cannot.
So I will try to relax tonight and plan out my week as best as possible and hope to have more interesting runs to talk about in the future.

First Blog

So I am training for my marathon and up until recently I have been overweight not the running type. Interestingly, I am loving running more than I could ever imagine. The main motivating factor is that I spend most of my day telling my clients the importance of keeping themselves and their loved ones in good shape, and since I hate being a hypocrit, I am putting my money where my mouth is. Money is sure being spent. I would never have thought that I would spend over $100 for running shoes, yet I am already thinking about buying a second pair as a back-up. The funny part about the shoes is that I had someone actually fit me with right shoes and it turns out I have been wearing shoes that were 1/2 size too small and not wide enough.
I promised myself that this blog was not going to only be about running, because I am not just someone who runs. My girlfriend is part saint. She has put up with quite a few dramatic changes in my life and in hers over that last 12 months. She was accepted into a 3 year program out of in Colorado. In the meantime I am racking up frequent flyer miles. This also has introduced me to the world of instant messaging. My family now thinks I have an obsession with the internet, yet I am such a neophyte it is not even funny. So here I am with this bizzarre outlet with my random stream of consciousness confusing whoever stumbles into this site.
Tomorrow is either an 8 or 10 mile day depending how I feel come mile marker # 4. If anyone is reading this and wants to know more about some of the different facets of my life just let me know.