It's Been 14 Days Since my Last Post?!?

Man has this month flown past! The holiday has come and gone, and the month is almost over. And I have a ton of stuff to update everyone on.

First and foremost, my workouts are coming along great! I've had a couple of wonderful workout since my last few posts that have really shown my improvement over the past few months that I'm going to share a little further on in my post.

Work is another story - I'm starting with this topic because everything else will fall in as I explain. I work as a Buyer / Materials Manager for a private manufacturing plant in Southern California. We specialize in electronic components that are great in extreme conditions - that coupled with the ability to dispense heat in the materials we work with make us a prime contractor for the government in military and space applications. Up until recently we hadn't felt any of the current slow-down of the economy, but that's slowly changing. Late last week I was told by the owner's son that they are consolidating purchasing into our Corporate office in Chatsworth. Now for anyone who has been reading knows I just went through a office move with the understanding my job was stable. We've had meetings upon meetings indicating that everyone job was safe as long as we hit target numbers....... Long story short - we f'ed it up over the last few months and showed a loss due to yields and production mistakes - production pointed the finger at materials, I supplied the reports and low and behold - I have a meeting with the owner's son.

So now I'm kind of in limbo - they have indicated to me that I'm not going to be laid off and I'll have plenty of work to do - I'm just not convinced that what they are telling me is the truth. So I've been spending time putting my finances in order and cutting out excess spending (for the whole family) Luckily Beth and I are in pretty good shape - we own two homes (one is a rental) and my overall debt is fairly low. Both of our cars are paid for and credit cards are paid monthly. I do have some expenses coming up that I'm worried about, but worst case scenario would be that we'd sell the second house and even in this market I could have the other house paid for and zero debt.

That all being said - my $25 fee for my 5k race was scrapped. Instead I rode my bike 30 miles on the day enjoying the nice afternoon weather. The day prior my Father-in-law treated me to a free game of golf and of course my running is free :). I'm back on-track for my monthly mileage, and in fact I should have record mileage for this week and finally go over 100 miles for the month.

As for other items - I have shown improvement in my conditioning several ways over the past two weeks.

1. A local small hill I have in my warm up/cool down route - normally I come down it, but the last few times I've reversed my route direction and I'm able to run up it without difficulty.

2. Riding 31 miles on my bike. It's been a while since I've physically been able to do that. Granted I took it easy with my pace and I wish I'd had worn my HRM because it felt easy. I'm guessing my HR didn't get over 170 the whole time (2+ hrs in the saddle) In fact, my a$$ is still sore but my legs feel pretty good.

3. I run a 2.23 mile route pretty regular, normally with a mile warm up and a mile cool down before and after. On the 22nd I ran this with Beth and Bogey (yeah I said Beth) as a warm up in 28:45 (12:54 pace) and felt great so I dropped them off and did another loop - 20:50 (9:21 pace) and it felt easy, effortless. I actually felt like I was running a training run back in High School. I finished off with a mile cool down to top everything off.

4. I'm currently on an 8-day streak and my legs feel great. My time to recover is getting better, that means I can put more quality workouts closer together.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

Disappointment

Disappointment in myself is my general theme this past week. I haven't hit any of my weekly goals I have made for myself and that combined with last weeks' illness kind of has me down a little. Just a couple of weeks ago I was on a high and now I'm struggling. We all go through these ups and downs so mentally I'm ok.

This weekend I'm planning about 8 miles running and another 15 cycling so I should be right back on track for the month. Also I'll sign up for my race - just a little over a week before the event. I'm looking forward to that also.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

I'm not Dead - Just Sleeping :)

It's been a difficult last few days. Mother's Day weekend started off bad - I really hadn't gotten rid of the flu and it hit me full force on Saturday. Sunday was nice we spent the morning at the park with Beth's family then the afternoon with mine. It's nice having both sets of parents living only 10 mins from each other. My older sister was in town from Alaska and it was the first time I had seen her since her bad car accident - she's doing well, with only a little scarring on her face and arms. God she's luck to be alive.

Running was nil this weekend, but I got in some good miles yesterday after work. Legs were tired and my conditioning was a little weak but it was good to get out and put in some miles. My overall mileage goal this month is 77 miles, and right now I'm slightly behind that number - I'll have to pick it up a little if I want to reach that. My other goal is my race on Memorial Day - I still haven't signed up for it, but I should get that done tonight on-line.

The only other thing I want to accomplish this month is getting in some more 'easy' miles - my percentage of easy miles over the past few months has gone down relative to my overall mileage. I'm not concerned about pace, but I need to get some solid miles in over the next few months. July I'm possibly planning a 10k (My first in about 10 years) so I really want to get some good miles in between now and then. I'm not going to follow any specific plan - and haven't set any time goals for this race yet - we'll see as I get closer to the actual date.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

I've Been Sick.

Well over the past 24 hrs I've been fighting the flu bug. Everyone in the house had it before I got a small touch of it. Nothing too serious, just enough to keep me up at night and feel rundown. I took the day off from work and just slept until about noon.

Started eating again around 1 pm and even though I was still feeling queasy I made it out the door for a nice walk with Bogey at 8 pm. I did miss my softball game (I called out earlier in the day just to be safe. I had to give the guys time to find a replacement....)

Because of the bug, my actual running has been minimal, but I have walked quite a bit so far this week. Hopefully I get get another 6-10 miles in before the week ends for me (Sat) and I'll have a pretty decent week in mileage. Not the 30+ miles I wanted but low to mid 20's still isn't that bad.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

Month End April 2009

Well I kind of puttered out again at the end of this month. I must have an mental aversion in reaching 100 mines in a month. 97.5 was my miles logged.... A PB (but I didn't break the mythical 100 like I was hoping to.) After Friday came and went I was in a funk - mentally I didn't want to run because I knew I missed that 100 mile goal again. Isn't it funny how you 'play' mind games with yourself without really realizing it?

Still this past month was very good to me. I hit several PB (See the sidebar) and overall felt really strong physically and mentally up until the final days of the month. I've taken three days off now and feel ready to start this month. The 27th I'm planning to run my first official race of the year so I have about 3 weeks of hard training to put in - then I'll scale it back a little just so I'm sure my legs are fresh before the race. I'm not concerned about my conditioning, and I fully expect to set a PB at this race.

Goal wise, short term this month It's pretty thin. I want to hit 77 miles for the month and run a sub 30 min 5k in my race. I'm not going to 'tweak' either of these because I set them about 6 months ago and (hopefully) I'll accomplish both and I can look back over the past 6 months and feel good about my progress. Long term - I'm starting to look at late 2009 and early 2010. Pace wise I'm hoping to be in the mid to high 8 min mile pace for a 5k distance at that point. If I can do that I'll start planning my first half mary at that point. Mileage wise - I'm thinking I top out at around 130-140 miles per month. Beyond that I really don't have much more time in the day. I see some early runs on the weekends - I'll have to give up my 'sleeping in time.'

Keep Steppin'
Bob