Tom's Blog

That's the theme for me here lately. Sorry I haven't updated lately. Just been going through a lot of personal stuff that I won't bore you all with here. My running has been almost non-existent. I need to get back in my groove. I promise to work on that.

I have a new road bike. It's a Trek 1000. I'm pretty excited about that. Just got it about a week ago. Got my Clipless pedals and shoes in today. I plan to go home tonight and learn how to fall over. LOL

I promise everyone I will get back on track, and get my butt back in gear with our site.

Sorry it's been a while. Just haven't been up to writing lately. Things have been a little stagnant lately. I've been running OK, just not really pushing myself.

This morning I ran the 7th Annual Barnyard Dash 10K at Huber's. We arrived around 7:00 am to pickup our packets and shirt. Shirt is pretty nice by the way. And we began watching arriving runners. Seemed to be a lot of Cross Country runner types. While waiting, we finally met Lenore and some of her peeps. Pretty cool lady. I bet you are a lot of fun to hang out with.

As we approached 8:00 am, it became obvious that the race was not going to begin on time. Nobody even seemed sure where the race was going to start from. By about 5 after or so, things got sorted out. The course was also not closed. They had a classic car show going on as well, and as we were lining up there were still cars coming directly toward us on the road we were about to run on.

Once they gave the start command, things actually smoothed out. we actually did not encounter too much traffic. I started out feeling pretty good, but when I reached the 1 mile point at 7:48, I was pretty sure I started too fast. I still felt good though so I stuck with it. As I started closing in on the 2nd mile I was starting to feel my pace slow. Uh oh, still 4+ miles to go. I finished the 2nd mile in 8:12. I could still see Joe up ahead of me, and I was trying to keep him there. At about the 2.5 mile point I fell apart for a bit and actually had to walk for a bit to regroup. I recomposed, caught my breath, and started running again. I finished the 3rd mile in 9:08. After that, I started to pull myself back together. My next 3 miles were 8:44, 8:25, and 8:15. Not bad decreasing my splits and the last mile had some pretty decent little get your attention hills. The last .2 was all a slight uphill into the parking lot and the finish shoot. I decided to just run as hard as I could muster. I was hurting, but refused to think about it. I looked, and I could see the clock. It was at 51:57. My PR time was 52:13. I still had a shot. I kept my head down and just ran. I didn't see what the clock time was, but when I hit the Garmin at the finish line it said 52:08. Oh that is close. I will wait to see the official time before calling it a PR though.

All in all, it was pretty well put on. I wouldn't have minded one more water stop around the 2 - 2.5 mile mark, but it wasn't bad. The weather was decent with light cloud cover, and low humidity. I definitely think I will run this one again. I expected more hills than we encountered thankfully.

Well, this weekend is in the books. It was a really good long weekend. We started it off by going to the Strawberry Festival in Starlight, IN. Not a bad event, but some one needs to tell some folks around here what a carnival ride is. My neice and nephew were really looking forward to some rides, as the advertisement said there would be carnival rides. However, when we got there, all they actually had were inflatable slides and and moon bounces or what ever you want to call them, oh and a rock wall to climb. They were quite disappointed. Carnival rides are roller coasters, tilt-a-whirl, ferris wheels, etc.

Sunday, we decided to have the family over for a backyard cookout, and some cornhole. It was some really good burgers, brats, and hot dogs, and a lot of fun. I was killing everyone at cornhole. I don't think I have more than one or to turns that yielded less than 5 points. I ended up having to sit out for a while to give everyone else a chance.LOL

Monday I was suppose to ride the Mayor's Hike and Bike, but when I looked at the radar on weather.com, it looked like a pretty good storm was going to hit downtown about the time we were supposed to start. Guess what, it never got there. I don't know if it just lost strength and broke up or what, but I should have went on down there. Instead, I came on over and got my cleaning done at work, and then went home an put in a 12 mile LSD. It was a pretty good run.

Wesley Korir also won the LA Marathon Monday as well as winning the challenge (worth $100,000) and setting a new course record. Way to go Wesley. He is such a great and humble guy, that you just can't help but root for him. I am really glad to see him doing so well.

I know I haven't blogged lately. I've been enjoying my running, just haven't had a lot to say.

Well, the foot seems to be better. Not sure what it was, maybe I was tying the shoes too tight or something. I haven't noticeably changed anything, but all seems well now. The body seems to be doing well over all also.

I have registered of for the Chicago Half Marathon on September 13th. I'm looking forward to it. I think it will be a good trip. I really had a good time at the Nike+ HumanRace last year. I also still plan to do the Evansville half in October, and I'm still 90% sure that I am going to run the Louisville full marathon in October as well.

Any way, I guess that's it for my rambling for today. I'll try to keep up better. LOL

On my right foot, I'm ok for about 3 miles or so, but when I start getting over that, I start having some pain my right foot. I think it is probably stress related, but I don't think it is a fracture or anything. I would imagine that would hurt considerably worse. I can continue running on it, but I have to be more conscious of it, and run more to the outside of my foot. If I start getting more even, or to the inside, it feels like someone is squeezing my foot. After I am done, it gets worse for a few hours, and lasts for about 2 days. Any Ideas?

Had a pretty decent weekend. I got in an 8 mile run on the TM at the YMCA on Saturday morning. Man you can tell the marathon is over. My last few visits to the Y have been around 6:00 in the evening on weekdays, and 8:00 in the morning Saturday, and before you couldn't find an open treadmill. Now you pretty much have your choice.