2013:2014 The half cometh

Since our St. Jude Kickapoo/Brimfield to Peoria run Wendy and I skipped most races due to high pricing (a fast growing trend); but kept up a good maintenance routine. We did run the local Jingle Bell 5k for arthritis and Wendy got a 28:30 while I got around a 29:30. The area as a whole raised around $100,000. During the fall training I averaged about 4-12 miles a week and Wendy around 12-18 miles per week. I now only run 3 miles a week due to my usual winter time resistance and various cardio training activities that will last through February. I lift 3-4 times a week and bike 2-3 along with some insanity/taebo style hits. Like I have mentioned in the past I'm a Clydesdale runner (over 200 lbs) and really was feeling the struggle for air this year, but had no injury concerns, except for my herniated disk flares. Wendy is doing really well in both distance and speed goals, with no known injuries. We both plan to run the St. Jude Nashville country music half marathon in April with a goal of 2:05. We will start 20+ mile training weeks in mid March and we also plan to run the Kickapoo/Brimfield to Peoria satellite run in the summer again and will be bothering everyone with new fundraising efforts for the children of St. Jude. Happy running!

2013 St. Jude and beyond

Wendy and I completed our first St. Jude satellite run with the Kickapoo-Brimfield team. That was the teams first year and together over $40000 was raised for the kids of St. Jude. We ran 12.3 miles each at about a 10:30 pace alternating 3 mile legs. Sometimes a lower or faster pace was ran depending on the group speed. We also started some IVS training along with our own programs earlier in July and plan to continue training for speed so we can relay the upcoming IVS half marathon in Springdale cemetery and get under 1:05 for 6.5 miles. That race is in early September. 

2013 Steamboat

We ran the 2013 Steamboat race yesterday and did not do as well as anticipated. I expected to get a time of 35 minutes; but due to a bad ankle sprain causing lack of training I was only able to gather up enough stamina for a 40:40. Wendy got around a 39:50. Our goal was between 35-39 minutes and during the week I expected that it was not going to happen. Nevertheless we will now start our long distance training for our scheduled St. Jude, IVS half, and Screaming Pumpkin races with a 5k thrown in there somewhere. The plan for this year is to go back to Full Steam Ahead training to gain a more competitive time and endurance for our upcoming races. We shall see..... Happy Fathers Day

2013 Training

We have started spring training and have been doing pretty good. Wendy and I are both injury free at the moment and have been training on the treadmill and on outdoor hills/flats. The weather this year in central Illinois is just not very good and we only run outdoors a few times a month when its cold outside; so most of our training has been on the treadmill where I range from 2-3 miles per workout and Wendy is around 4-7 miles per workout. She has been doing a really good job at taking advantage of my weaknesses! It is nice to be at the almost exact same pace, so I'm not going to complain much. In February we decided to sign up for the St. Jude Brimfield to Peoria run on July 30th 2013 (I believe). We have started fundraising for that and that race along with Steamboat is all that is planned for this year so far. We range from 6 to 30 miles per week or more during peak training and the cost of racing has gone up over the years. We have been thinking about Team Steam/IVS half group training for June through September and will most likely run our annual IVS half and Screaming Pumpkin races in Springdale. This year also brings Peoria's first marathon in May which we will just run the 5k portion if we run it. We have yet to give into all the marathon hype! For my back and other injury prone areas for us both; they hope our heads remain with this school of thought....