Thursday, April 29, 2010

2 days, 23 hours and 27 minutes

This morning was an easy interval run, 3x800m at 5k pace. So I warmed up for ten minutes, then ran my first 800 at 6:40 pace with 400m breather. Next 800m at 6:27 pace with 400m breather. Last 5:56 pace 800m, all was done at 1% incline.

I did it all while watching Inter Milan pull the upset of the Champions League by advancing into the finals, where they will play Bayern Munich. Barcelona won the game 1-0 but Inter Milan advanced because of their 3-1 home win, winning on aggregate 3-2. It was great, I have lost some respect for Barcelona after all the diving they were doing throughout the past few rounds. Inter Milan had to play a man down after a defender was wrongly red-carded because of more dramatics by a Barca player. It gives soccer a bad name, hopefully it wont happen at the world cup this summer.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Countdown to Broad St Run

I am now in countdown mode, 3 days, 22 hours and 41 minutes until Broad St. Not that it is that important of a run, but I might as well get excited about it. Although, I may have ruined my chances of reaching my sub-70 goal this past weekend by doing no real training, and eating and drinking everything in sight at our MBC golf getaway in AC. We left on Friday which is an off day for me, and I ran Saturday morning, about 4.5 miles. Sunday I did nothing. Came home Sunday night and didn't run Monday morning. Tuesday morning I planned to get up and do a tempo run but had trouble getting out of bed. When I finally did, I only had time for a 3 miler.

This morning I got back into things (hopefully not too late!) and did a tempo run, 10 minutes EZ warm-up, followed by 20 minutes at 6:40 pace, then 5 minutes of EZ cool down. I did this while I watched the Lyon v Bayern Munich champions league semifinal. Bayern smoked them, 3-0 so will move on to the finals to face the winner of Inter milan v Barcelona game which is today.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

10 x 400 at pace

This morning's run was an interval run, 10x400m at pace. I was beat waking up today because I was up late last night. I had to go down to Baker Street to finish painting, so was there after work until about 10:45pm, so didn't get home and to bed until about 11:30pm. For me that's late when I have to get up at 5am. The alarm went off and I contemplated staying in bed and pushing off the run but at 5:30 I finally dragged myself downstairs to the treadmill and did the run. Thank the gods for the treadmill, I would be lost without it.

So I warmed up for 5 minutes, then did my first 400 at 7:30 pace to warm up with some striders in there. Then did the next 400 at 9.0mph which is around 6:50 pace I think. I rested for 1 minute, then did each of the next eight 400's at one mph higher than the last one, so that by the end I was at 9.8mph (but I bumped the last one up to 10mph just to beast it). All were done with one minute of rest, and at 1% incline.

This weekend is our annual golf trip, but not going to Myrtle Beach, heading to AC. Not sure what my running schedule will be, I hope and expect Craig will want to run so that should motivate me to do something at least. We'll see.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

45 min tempo and Philly Union pics

This morning was a 45 minute tempo run. Had a 40 minute tempo run last week and was fine with it, but this morning's run was much harder for some reason. Did 10 minutes EZ, then 23 minutes at 6:58 pace, last 2 minutes at 6:40. Should have ended with 10 more minutes of EZ jogging, but didn't have the time, so just cooled down jogging for a few minutes and then had to go, walk Casey and get going to work. I think my legs will welcome a taper next week before Broad Street.

Also found out that softball starts this weekend. Can't play our first game because of AC golf weekend on Sunday, but next game is Friday night before Broad street. That kind of sucks because I am usually sore after my first softball game because of all the sprinting, so I will have to take it easy that night. Or hope for rain.

Here are the pics of the Union game, enjoy fellas.

Before the game...and before tailgating. Ray looking gayer than ever
After the game, many coolies, burgers and sausages later. Tim taking over the gayness with a Ray wave. Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Sounds like Mikey when he answers the phone when his wife calls.
BFF's. "Hey buddy, wanna play with my ball"
This is Matt, not OTIS or SITO. Matt is the organizer and leader of all things of this world.
Again, here is Matt taking charge of the tailgate, getting the food prepared and telling Craig "don't worry, I'll take care of everything."
Now, this is SITO. He is about to take a knife out and threaten someone who said the sausages were a bit over-cooked. Thankfully he has on sunglasses, because the look alone behind those glasses has been known to make a grown man pee his pants.
And I am sure you all guessed who the above picture is: OOOOOTTTTTTIIIIIIISSSSSSSS!!!!!!

OTIS just told a pornagraphic joke in the below picture. That's so OTIS.
Shout out to Mikey's Liverpool team, "You'll never walk alone..."
On our way into the game, that's Ray behind the cup if you couldn't tell from the police officer issued haircut.
The line behind us trying to get into the game because of the metal detectors in place for Vice Pres Biden
And the mass in front of us.
Action shots from the game


This is right after the game winning goal

Craig watching the game intently...
...and Scot watching intently, but really he is just staring off into space thinking about the matches he watched on WWE Friday night Raw the night before, oh and about Tim

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

EZ 4 miles and political soapbox

I looked at my training plan last night and today was supposed to be a 45 minute tempo run. My reaction, "Uh oh." I definitely wasn't physically ready for that yet this week, I needed a run to get my legs back, they were still a bit achy from my weekend runs and poor nutrition from Saturday and Sunday. So I did 4 miles, at an easy pace, around 8 minutes/mile. Ended up with around 800 at 6/mile pace, just to end strong. My legs felt immediately better. I went and walked Casey right after and I felt great.

Also found a great new marathon training plan for my next marathon that I can't wait to use. Up to now, I have used the Hal Higdon training plans for each of my marathons. However, I don't think they are getting me to where I want to be. So I am going to change things up this summer. It is from Runners World and I found it here:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244--6946-1-3X5X7-4,00.html#

Lastly, totally unrelated to running, I was listening to NPR this morning on my way to work and heard for the 5th time in the past three days a story about the Goldman Sachs lawsuit that the SEC filed last week. It made me sick to listen to the whole situation. Since this is a blog, let me just "blog" about how I feel about this whole deal. It is disgusting. I don't know how these people, financial people, can live with themselves. This guy was a hedge fund manager, and he was "betting," literally, against the hedge fund, which dealt with sub prime mortgages. And we wont even get into the sub prime mortgage industry and the irresponsibility of that whole mess. By definition, a hedge fund manager is someone who should be doing everything they can to make the fund profitable, and sell that profitable fund to clients. And he was selling it to clients. And then he was going and betting against it, betting that the fund would fail. And in doing so he made a billion dollars. No exaggeration. He actually made a billion dollars. I mean, that is one of the most dishonest things I have ever heard about. And that is an important point, to think this is the first time something like this has happened would be naive. I am sure it happens all the time, but we just don't hear about it. I don't know how these people live with themselves.

And it just so happens that this story coincides with a bill that is going through Congress concerning more regulation for Financial companies. I doubt that is a coincidence. But this leads me to another point. Conservatives say "nay" to more regulation of the financial companies and Wall Street in general, shouting socialism. Well, in reality, the only difference is who the corrupt individuals are. In communism, it is the government officials who get corrupt, and as we see, here in capitalism, it is individuals who are corrupt. So really, what's the difference??? Is it hidden better here in capitalism? Where's the happy medium?

Monday, April 19, 2010

Boston Marathon race day

Today is the Boston Marathon, which I will admit I want to run someday, ("it is written") which means I have to qualify. Someday.

This weekend I had training runs for Broad Street, two fairly hard runs. On Saturday was a 6 miler at pace, which I ran at 6:50 pace. I did it on the treadmill with some good music pulling me through and sportscenter on the tube to watch. Not bad, hard but OK. I count through songs to get through the miles. I know that two songs is about a mile, so I know I have to get through 12 songs when I start. When I
get close to the end, I force myself not to look at the treadmill and just count the songs. So when I got to song ten, I said I wouldn't look down until song 12 was halfway through. When that happened, I looked down and I was at 6.25 miles, what a pleasant surprise!

Then yesterday was a long run. My training plan had a 12 miler, and then 13 the following weekend. But next weekend is our AC golf trip, so not sure if I will be able to do 13 on Sunday so I wanted to get a long one in yesterday. Plus, my plan doesn't have much of a taper, so I thought I would try to taper next weekend a bit so I feel fresh for Broad St. So I did what I thought would be around 14 miles. And then I went out an
d timed it in the car with the kids (they needed to get out of the house because Kai is sick and was whining) and it ended up being 13.4 miles. I did it in 105 minutes which is 7:50 pace. My legs were a bit sore because of Saturday's run. Not because it was so hard, but because I didn't eat anything significant after that run until 5:30 that night because I was painting Baker St all day.

Good luck to Bostoners.


Thursday, April 15, 2010

Tax Day!

Tax day today, and I haven't turned in anything. I wish I was a bit more organized, but the days go by so fast and all of a sudden, it's April.

Today's workout: 6x800 at 5k race pace. Not the easiest workout at 5am in the morning. I think I would feel a bit stronger a little later in the day, but hey, what am I going to do, that's the time I have. So for me, what's 5k race pace. I think my best 5k is a 20:20. I know I can do better than that if I trained for it, but I seem to always be focusing on a marathon to do with someone and don't take a 5k seriously. It would be nice to be under 20 though. Anyway, so for today I ran .5 miles EZ to warm-up, then started my first 800 at 9mph, around 6:40 and did each 800 one mph higher than the last, ending at 9.5mph, which is around 6:20 per mile. All of it was with 1% incline, which I usually do everything at.

Broad Street 2010 sub-7 per mile - "It is written"

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Not another blog...!!!

This is my first post of my new running blog, RunningSchultz. Why start a blog, about myself, for myself? Who cares? No one, really. But it is for me, to hold myself accountable. This way, when I say I'm going to do something, I have written it down and I am accountable. No more thinking in my mind, "I'm going to try and qualify for Boston" or "I'm going to run a 65 minute Broad Street." Now, if I write it on my blog, it is like I have said it out loud so I have to do it, and put forth my best effort. Before, it was like, "Well, I didn't tell anyone I was going to try and qualify for Boston, so it is not a real failure." Now it will be, and I think it will motivate me to work harder in my training.

Now when I state my goals on my blog, I can end with a quote from possibly my favorite movie of all time, Slumdog Millionaire...

"It is written, yeah?"

So should I say it? Should this be my first posted goal?
Not yet. Here is the first goal, Broad street. My PR for broad street is 66 minutes. Don't think I will be able to break that with everything that's been going on lately, namely, my new daughter, which equals many a sleepless night and breaks in training. So goal #1, sub 70 minutes for Broad St 2010. "It is written."
Broad St starting line, do you see me?