Slowly I'm Progressing

It's been about ten days since my last post (really?!?) and I've been really busy with both personal stuff, family, and my running. Currently I'm on pace for a 90 mile month so I'll have to pick it up this week if I want to hit that 100 mark again. Stroller runs ARE making me stronger, and I'm not doing enough running with my partner Bogey.

Have you ever heard of a dog bonking out on a run? Well that's exactly what happened to Bogey and I last weekend. My wife took our kids out to watch their cousin's football game and that left Bogey and I with a couple hours to burn, so I decided to go out on a 'longish' run. Now when I though of the ides I was thinking of a three miler, but within 2 mins of leaving the house I knew I could go for 7-10 by just how I felt. Immediately I changed course and set out for my longer loop that I could add to as we went. The loop itself is about 6.5 miles and the add on could increase this distance by at least 4-5 miles if I wanted to. Weather wise it was kind of hot for this time of the year (82 degrees) for the late afternoon but I wasn't worried about myself - but I should have been worried for my partner. (Small note: last attempt at this particular loop I myself crashed sometime last year.) About 2 miles into the run I noticed Bogey was lagging behind me, tongue rolling out of his mouth and panting hard. At first I thought it was because we had just past the Dog Park and he wanted to play, but very quickly I realized he was completely out of gas - so for the next 10 mins we waked so he could cool down and catch his breath. After that it was a slow jog downhill straight home, no addons, shoot we didn't even complete the loop (4.5 miles only). Still it got me thinking, I guess even dogs can have bad days.

My other runs have been good though - I'm still pushing Cade in the stroller and I'm getting quicker, below is my pace chart (weekly) in regards to my stroller runs. I'm impressed with myself because I'm not trying to increase pace here - just working on getting in longer more meaningful runs.



Keep Steppin'
Bob

Stoller Pacing

Pace for my stroller runs....

I'm improving on these runs, but I'm not sure if it's because I getting into better conditioning or if it's because I'm getting used to pushing the stroller. I'm guessing it's a little of both. Over the past few weeks - I feel like I'm getting stronger, and it's reflected in my pacing here.

Now please understand that I never start a training run with a pace in mind unless I'm planning on running a tempo run. Stroller runs have been strictly 'easy' runs on my calendar so effort wise I'm not trying to 'bust' these runs out so I feel good about my progress at this point in time. I still can't understand the runners in my races that pass me pushing someone at a 9 min pace. That to me is just a monster pace.

Maybe in a few months I'll re-run this report and publish it again. That may be interesting, hopefully I'll be pleased at the results then also.

Last night I got in a easy run with Bogey - I only went 2.2 miles, but that put me at 9 miles for the day so I was pleased with the effort here also. 10:29 was my pace so I was right where I wanted to be for this run. Even with my legs feeling really tired it was nice to run this with little effort.

This morning's run was only 1.6 miles - just enough to test out my legs after yesterday's big mileage. Tonight I'm planning an easy 5k which will put me over 70 miles for the month. My mileage goal this month is 79 miles so I'm well on pace to reach that goal and I feel pretty good about that.

Saturday is my mile TT date. 8:44 is my current PB and I really want to beat this. It's been sitting at this time for a while now (I haven't tried to break it to be honest) and I'm not feeling too confident right now in being able to beat this. Mainly because even though I've put in some good training runs over the past few weeks, I don't feel like the speed is there to break this yet. My weight hasn't gone down like I've expected and I think that's going to hold me back this weekend. (I'd rather be around 198 rather than 203). Oh well we'll see how it goes - I'll keep you posted.

Stocks are going well, I reached another cash out goal this morning (that's five this month, where I was only planning two). Right now I'm just sitting back and waiting for some purchases to move before I can cash them out. I'm guessing sometime before Friday I'll be making another cash out. Currently I have two different trading accounts, an IRA account that is non-taxable and setup for long term investments. On this account I'm also invested in companies that hand out dividends. My other account (which is much smaller by about 60%) I use for income. Here I work in $400.00 groups. Every $400.00 I make, $300 comes out as income and the other 25% get re-invested so I can grow this account to over 25k (for those who don't know 25k is the cutoff the government has created to let investors have unlimited day trades. Right now I'm only allowed 3 days trades in a 5 day period.) All this means is that I need to make sure I hold onto a stock overnight in most cases. Most of the time this is good because I can then catch the up gaps that have been occurring recently on this market's bull trend we've been having since March of this year.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

5 Miler in the Bank

Got out and pushed Cade for 5 miles this morning and it felt pretty good. The run was on a pretty hilly course and I did struggle, I even had to walk about :45 seconds at one point, but I'm sure this training is going to help me a ton later on. My pace was slow (11 min miles) so it's difficult looking at my log knowing I'm putting up these very slow times, shoot I even entered a new running category (stroller runs) so I know why the pace is so slow on these runs. That helps a little.

My legs feel good today - a little tired but not too bad overall. Conditioning is slowly getting better and I'm gaining confidence in my ability.

I've been slacking on my evening runs so far over the past several days which is unfair to my running buddie Bogey. He doesn't seem to mind too much but I really need to get out with him tonight. Last night I put Cade down and completely crashed with him, Beth work me up around 9 pm and I was just beat. So I did a little work and came to bed around 11 pm.

Today is Beth's actual B-day. Happy birthday cutie! I love you. She's celebrating her 2nd 30th birthday today. From here on out it's going to be difficult remembering how old she is. :) Her Boss gave her a day at the local spa. All expenses paid on him - shoot he's even paying her salary today. So right about now I think she's getting some sort of facial and foot rub.

Wild Morning!

I woke up early this morning with a feeling the market was going to go crazy. If fact over the past several days I've been prepping for today. Low and behold it DID blow up to the upside! I started cashing in stocks left and right and before I knew it, I had already reached my personal income quota for the month! So I walked away from my computer took Abby to school and then when for a nice 3 miler this morning without having to think about anything.

Abby on the Papa's boat

And the run was nice - the sun was trying to break through the marine cover so the temp was staying low (about 69). Cade kept looking for his shadow which wasn't coming out to play. Needless to say he wasn't happy about that and kept shifting around in the stroller. Talk about making it difficult to run! Still I'm getting used to having Cade with me and even though he doesn't stop talking, or asking questions, on days like today it doesn't bother me at all. If fact today I was happy to spend time with him chatting about clouds, Abby's school, the local tunnel (and shouting inside it to listen to our voices echoing), and looking for our shadows. Before I knew it we'd finished and I clocked 3.3 mile at a 11:19 pace which is pretty good for lugging a 30lb kid and stroller.

Damm, It just didn't look like he wanted to join me.

Hopefully I'll get another run in tonight. Last night's run I didn't take Bogey so I felt kind of bad, and I need to make it up to him. Plus last night's run turned into a tempo run - I think it was because I was by myself and just opened up a little. So tonight I want to run a 3 miler easy to give my legs a little chance to recover.

Keep Steppin'

Bob