2015

I see a lot of my racing buddies already mulling over the 2015 race schedule for themselves. Many are looking to run IM's and some are looking to Boston and some are spreading to other type of races. When I see this conversation get started, it only leads me to start thinking about what I am going to race in 2015. I already know I am doing Redman again, but what else am I going to do to help me do better at Redman?

One of the main reasons I want to do Redman a second time is due to the run. My run sucked. I did a 7+ hour marathon. I know I can do better than that, and without going into excuses of why I was a 7 hour plus marathoner like blisters or whatever, I want to beat it. I know that if I can somehow have a good run, I could be closer to the 14 hour mark instead of the almost 16 hour mark. So that has really played into my thought process of 2015.

Running

Running

Running

Guess what I am going to focus on? RUNNING!!!

So here is my proposed schedule, which has not been approved by my bride.

December- St Jude half
January- Winter Cross Country series 3K and 5K
February- Fort Smith Half and Winter Cross Country 10K
March- Germantown Half and Little Rock Half
May- Memphis in May Sprint Triathlon
July- Mighty Mite Triathlon
September- REDMAN

So I know what you may be thinking, that's a lot of halves in there and no marathon, I mean if you want a better marathon, shouldn't you run a marathon? And to your thinking I would say "meh".

I really do not like training for marathons. I also think that a strong start to the year of running will fit in nicely to the IM training I will start in May, right after Memphis in May. I will have to find the right plan or coach maybe, but I think it is totally doable and will have my running base further ahead than ever.

I know I can do better than 15:53 and I know it all depends on my run, so that is my focus!

And I wanna beat Brad

3 Things of Many Topics...

I know it has been awhile since my last post, but things have been busy. There are a lot of things I could write about. I could tell you about our wonderful vacation in Florida that we had as a family, or I could tell you about our mini van blowing a transmission on the drive home from said vacation and how we had to purchase a new car in Byron GA in order to get home. I could write about those things, but I am not going too. Not because they aren't worth writing about, but because this is a blog about training and racing, and I really have not been doing either one consistently very much. So instead of talking about the above things, I want to write about 3 things:

1. Mighty Mite Triathlon
2. Women's Run Walk Group of Memphis
3. St Jude Marathon


1. The Mighty Mite triathlon is a great race I have done many times, and it is alot of fun. I had actually signed me and my wife up to race this on July 19th and paid the registration fees. I was a little worried about the bike course, but felt confident about the swim and the run. We also had made travel arrangements since it is about an hour away, we were going to ride with a another Warriors teammate. So I had decided that I was racing this race for fun, not time. Well last night, my wife and I realized that our boys were leaving on a church trip that leaves on July 19 at 11 AM! (I thought they left on Sunday) There is no way that we can get to the race site, run the race and get back in time to get them to the bus. They (my boys) have been so busy this summer that I feel like I have not seen them much and I just can't make a case for me not being there when they leave for New York. So Mighty Mite, enjoy our race fees and my wife and I learned a valuable lesson about scheduling.

2. Every summer, the Memphis Runner Track Club puts on a running clinic for women. They train for 8 weeks and then have a graduation 5K race. My wife has advance from the beginners class to the advance class this year and always enjoys this group. In the past she has always thought that I should help coach but I was always training for something and it never worked out, until this year. So I am assisting with the Intermediate 1 group this year. I am really looking forward to see how this group works so I can take somethings back to the groups I lead at church.

2A. One of the other coaches in the group was someone I thought I knew, so I finally asked her name and once she said it, I instantly knew her from her blog. I met Cecilia from Mommiesrun.com I found this blog when looking for local races around Memphis. It was cool cause she also read my blog. It is really kind of weird to meet people that you do not know that actually read what you write!

3. St. Jude Marathon, or the Half marathon, cause that is the race I am doing. I feel like due to my lack of racing this year, that I should really focus on this race and really go for that PR. My half marathon PR is 1:56, which is respectable, but with a flat course, and let's face it, I should be well rested, why not shoot for that PR. A 1:40 would feel really good. I have never run the half course before so it will be something new for me. I need something to focus on. I am still planning on doing a 140.6 in 2015 and I know my run sucks, so I need to run it.

So there ya go, three short topics for one read. I really plan on blogging more in the future, but it has been crazy with work lately, I am actually having to work all day! LOL