Oh, the Possibilities...

I am sad to say that I have already ran more this month than I did in January. 8.25 miles is all I have logged this month and I am beating January. But here is the thing that I have not felt in a long, long time. I am starting to...

 

I can honestly say that it has been awhile since I enjoyed it, but I guess a year off is the right amount of time to miss something!  Go figure! The hardest part for me has been taking it slow and building back. In my mind, I am still in Ironman shape (did I mention I was an Ironman? never mind) and I should be able to go out and knock out 10 miles no problem, but that is so not the case! My runs are short right now. As a matter of fact, my longest run this year has been 2.5 miles! This has all been part of my master plan though. I plan on using February to try and build some sort of base. I doubt I go over 4.5 miles in total distance. In March, I will add some biking and swimming and hopefully by May, I will be ready for my first sprint race in 3 years! (which I am really excited about doing). After this sprint in May, it is "GO TIME", time to focus on Redman 140.6. IM #2!!!

But before that, there are a couple of races I am thinking of doing and some I will do. Seems like every year I make a list of races I am doing, then life gets in my way and I only hit about half or less of them, so this year, this is my races that are on my radar list. So here they are and some quick thoughts on why I want to do them:

• Los Locos Duathlon- (April 12) This is a good race to gauge where I am at. It's a 2 mile run, 15 mile bike, 2mile run. It is in April though, which is a drawback for me, seems early, much preferred when it was in Sept.
• Rebelman Sprint Triathlon- (April 12) This is a nice little sprint at Ole Miss. The only thing I do not like about it is that it is a pool swim, plus it is on the same day as the Los Locos Duathlon, so choices will have to be made. A 480 yd swim, 13 mile bike and a 3.1 mile run might be a good refresher for me.
• Memphis in May Sprint Triathlon (May 2015)- This is a race I am looking forward to because I know so many people that race. Even some of my friends are planning n the sprint to be their first triathlon, so I definitely want to be there. My wife always races this one as well, so it could be our first triathlon together!
• The Harbortown 5K- (June 5) I did this race one time when I first moved to Memphis and loved running through the area. I really want to run this with my wife, just because it is something we can run together.
• Navy Nautical 10 Miler- (June 7) Never ran this before. I have learned that 10 nautical miles is closer to 11 miles for some reason. They have cool medals and would definitely be something new for me. I know I need to work on my running.
• Dragonfly Triathlon- (June 13) I hate this triathlon! It has a trail run on it and it is usually hot as fire! However, I have not raced this in about 4 years, so maybe it might be worth re-looking at. 1/2 mile swim, 18 mile bike, 4 mile run.
• Mighty Mite Triathlon- (July 18) Another sprint triathlon in Arkansas. Last year both my wife and I signed up for it and then realized we could not make it due to family obligations (bad planning). This is a point to point race, and is a pretty fun race. 600 yd swim, 13 mile bike, 3.1 mile run.
• Elvis Presley 5K- (Aug 15) How have I lived in Memphis for 14 years and only ran this once?? Last year my bride and I ran it and had a great time. We agreed to make it an annual race for us to run!
• Redman Full- (Sept 26) Everything listed above should have something to do with this race. This is my A number one race, with the main goal of beating 15:53 first and then on beating Brad D.
• Ragnar Relay- (Oct 26-28)- This is just straight up fun. The old team that I did it with in 2013 is back together and we are adding a good friend of mine to run. This will be a great end of the year race.

So again, I am not saying this is my race schedule, but these are the ones I am interested in running. If I hit them all, then that would be a lot of races for 2015. I am just happy I am actually looking at races again and even thinking about a schedule. I have to remember to build slowly and take care of myself, which I am doing, along with a 30 day ab challenge!!!

Don't Be Cruel, Read This Race Report

August 16th is the alleged death date for the King of Rock N Roll Elvis Presley. So what is more fitting than to go out and run 5K race that starts at the gates of Graceland (which is basically In the Ghetto now)? The Elvis Presley 5K is now one of my favorite races and I think everyone reading this should go race it. I really have no excuse as to why in my 13 years of being a Memphian and a lifetime of being an Elvis fan, that I have never run this race before, but I guarantee it will be on my race list every year going forward.

**Fact, did you know that Heartbreak Hotel is actually at the end of Lonely Street in Memphis?



Em in front of Graceland

 This is one of the bigger 5K's in Memphis. This year there was 1,122 runners on the course. So naturally, I was not looking for a fast time or a PR. If you have read my blog before than you can imagine that I was concerned about following one of my race rules. Rule #2, No one in a costume beats me. There were plenty of people in Elvis hair, Elvis sideburns and Elvis gold glasses, so even though I was using this as a training run, I needed to keep the rules. My wife, Emily also ran with me and our main goal was just to stay together, which is so hard in a big race. But I am getting ahead of myself.

As we arrived to the race site that morning, the weather was great, there was no chance of a Kentucky rain comin downnnn, and I was shocked at how easy parking was. They had guards directing us right into a spot. One thing I hate about some races is simply finding a place to park. Once the car was parked, we walked right up to the race site and visited real bathrooms, not porta potties! Score!!!! We then just kind of strolled around looking at the sponsors booths and getting our picture taken!

We decided to roll up to the gates of Graceland and take a picture when they opened the gates! We got to walk up to the house, take pictures and visit the alleged grave of Elvis Presley and family. It was amazing to see all the flowers and mementos that people from around the world have left at the gravesite. You have to remember that this was the end of Elvis week, so there had been thousands of fans in town all week! So after paying respect to the King, we made our way to the start line, but first we had to get a picture with an Elvis, which left us All Shook up!

We lined up about a third of the way back from the start line. We did move up to pass the approximately 100 NAVY men running in formation carrying a flag. That was actually pretty cool to see. So before we knew it, the gun sounded.

Now many people started running, but we weren't close enough to the official start line that I had to hold Em back until we crossed the timing mat. Once we hit the mat, the watches were started and we were on our way. Like I said earlier, my main goal was to finish under 30 minutes and to stay with my wife. We are running pretty well, and we finally find that line where you do not have to dodge people anymore and we get into a good pace, and then we see him. There is an Elvis impersonator running in a full Elvis jumpsuit, wearing Blue Suede Shoes. He was throwing out Thank you very much and telling every dog that barked in the neighborhood he was nothing but a hound dog!

My wife was running great. She has come a long ways with her running. She will tell you I pushed her, but That's Alright Momma, she also pushed me. At one point I looked down my Timex and we were hitting around an 8 minute mile! We got in a great pace and held on. She did not wear her Garmin, so she only knew what I told her regarding pace, and I purposely did not tell her much. So much for my training run! I felt great also during the entire run. Once we hit mile 2, I knew we were heading for a good time. We ran on the last stretch, we knew it Was Now or Never and Emily said Little Less Conversation, Little More Action as we hit the final stretch to the finish line. We turned in a 27:25. Emily hit a new PR! I was very proud of her and she was stoked for herself! It's funny, you have one midset pre race, then it shifts and you have another mindset during the race! Here are some race shots.

 

As we crossed the finish line, we got a cool finisher's medal with the iconic "TCB" on it, which stands for Taking care of business, which Elvis was famous for saying. Gotta admit, it is one of my favorite medals.

Love Me Tender, Love me some finishers medals!

Next we spent some time at the booths, cause the warden threw a  party at the county jail (Jailhouse Rock Reference!) ate some donuts (seemed appropriate) and then we hit the results table for our official times. It was not a Heartbreak Hotel for either of us! Our official results were that Emily finished 7 out of 90 in her AG 216/1122 overall. I finished 24/90 in my AG, 215/1122 OA and our time was 27:25.



I know, a Hunk, a hunk of Burnin Love right there!

"Elvis Presley has left the building"

I Love Me Some New Shoes!

Yes, I got new shoes this week. They actually were delivered to the house while I was in Atlanta. For the past three years, I have been running in Brooks Glycerins. I currently have 4 pairs of them, but they have all hit their mileage mark with me, and it was time for new shoes. I could tell. there are a couple of ways I can tell when I need new shoes.

1. My feet hurt after running. Simple right? Well sometimes I just figure that my feet should be tired and sore after a long run, but then when you have a new pair of kicks on, the feet feel great.

2. My knees hurt. I have been having some issues with my right knee. Almost to the point of wanting to see a doctor about it, but after getting in my new kicks, the knee pain is slowly disappearing.

3. Mileage- I am on of those guys that tracks the mile of each run and on the shoes, so I know when my shoes hit about 300 miles, then I need new shoes.

So after reviewing these three factors and placing a check by each one, I order some new Brooks running shoes. I ordered the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 14 shoes.

So far I nothing bad to say about these shoes. They are a more supportive shoe, even more than the Glycerin I think. They feel great and my feet feel a ton better after a run. I do not think you can ever discount the importance of a good shoe when running!

What's your brand of shoe? and how many of them do you have?

P.S. My wife and I just registered for the Elvis Presley 5K here in Memphis! I am all shook up about this and can't wit for that race report to be filled with Elvisisms!!!