DadTo2

Venting for a moment...34 days until my first official half marathon and I pulled a fracken calf muscle in my left leg! Applying ice right now and will go see the sports specialist tomorrow or Tuesday. Looks like I won't be running in New York during vacation this week after all.

Hopefully I'll be healthy in time for the half.

Still in training for my first half coming up in two months, so I decided to run a half distance yesterday morning. Bottom line is that I shaved a little over seven minutes off my time and finished up in 2:13:47, at a pace of 10:10 per mile. Still have a ways to go to hit what I want, which is to finish a half in 1:45:00. That would put me running a full at 3:30 and qualify me for Boston.

It'll take a while, but I will get down to it.

Here's the map and stats: http://www.runtastic.com/en/users/eric-dickey/sport-sessions/70175726

Update: I completed a little tri today!!! A big thank you to massindex and Lisa:) for encouragement and tips! I had a FANTASTIC time. I can't wait to do another!

That is fantastic!! Congratulations!

Yes it is. My wife is running the 10K and me and a buddy are running the half that day. Have you ever done that one?

I haven't done that one yet, but it is one that I was looking at doing.

Yay...another run/walk/runner!!! I am still doing this on all my long runs and as you said, I have much more energy at the end while improving my overall time. I am doing another half in June in Irving, TX and I'm going to continue to use this method and see how much I can improve on my time, as well as increase the enjoyment of the whole thing. Then in November I'm doing the San Antonio Rock and Roll marathon and my wife is doing the half marathon.

Hey BTB, is that the Wounded Warrior Half you're talking about in June?

Okay, so I did my first "official 10K race" today in Ft. Worth. I say official because I have run several 10K distances in my training so far. What upsets me about this race is not how I did, but the fact that I don't think the distance measured for the 10K was actually 10K! I started my GPS tracker as I was crossing the start line, and I was not hitting the distance markers like I should have. What's worse is that When I crossed the finished line, I had actually done 6.41 miles instead of 6.2! Really screwed me up trying to get a PR in the 10K.

Here is what they have me officially in the race (I'm number 7 down):

And here is what Runtastic (My GPS app I use) says I did:

Here are my split times from Runtastic:

So it leaves me to wonder, just what was screwed up here? The race distance or my GPS? I started the GPS right as I crossed the start line, and stopped it just as I crossed the finish line.

What do you guys think?

So here is my race schedule for the rest of the year.

Mayfest Run 5K/10K - May 4 - Ft. Worth - 10K

Rock the Block 10k, 5k and Fun Run - may 18 - Plano - 10K

Free to Breathe Dallas 5K and 10K - May 19 - Plano - 10K

Mission Possible 5K, 10K and Fun Run - May 25 - Ft. Worth - 10K

Cure For One, Cure For All 1k/5k/10k - June 1 - Bachman Lake - 10K

Irving Marathon Series- Summer Half & 5k June 15th - Irving - Half

3rd Annual Plano Balloon Festival Half Marathon - Sept 22 - Plano - Half

The Colony Half - Oct 12 - The Colony - half

MCKINNEY MINI (13.1, RELAY AND 5K) - Nov 9 - McKinney - Half

Should be a good year, leading up to my first full next year.

BTB, I am jealous. First you run your first half, now you're set up to run your first full marathon. Congrats!

Just saw this in my news ticker:

http://www.itv.com/n...on-finish-line/

None of you ran the Boston Marathon today i hope. Prayers go out.

it's streaming here: http://www.bloomberg.com/live-stream/

Yes, prayers need to go out.

What are some of your ingredients for success after 10 k distance? Do you eat energy squares or other sustenance every so often? What do you do about Water? Sounds like a really good push! Great job! Also, do you get into that running zone where 8 miles feels the same as 12 miles? I am still around 6 miles average, but am going to start working up towards 8-10.

Fiddleman, what I am doing is more experimentation right now, trying to find what will work best with me. I can tell you that if my runs are 8 miles or under, I will only use water after the initial 10K distance. So far I have done pretty well in running up to a 10K distance without any need for water or energy chews.

The runs I have done that are more than 8 miles, and the runs I plan on running that are more than 8 miles, I will carry two water bottles with me (came with the hydration pack) that are 6 oz each, and will carry a pack of cliff brand energy chews (6 chews) I will use 3 pieces with about 2/3 of one bottle at 6.3 to 6.5 miles out, then do the same at about 9.5 to 10.5 miles out (depending on the distance I am choosing to run for that LD run.)

I have tried the Cliff chews twice now and they are not too bad, but are somewhat big and takes a lot of water to go down. I have also tried the Stinger brand honey chews, and those are smaller, and work about the same but there are 10 to a serving in stead of 3 like the Cliff ones. Both take a lot of water (for me anyway) to get down. I also have to slow really down, almost to a walk to get the half serving with water down. I am working on that though, so I don't have to slow down, but I am a mouth breather when I run, so that might not happen very well for me.

As far as being in the zone, usually I do get in that zone and the run is fairly easy for me and yes, 8 feels the same as 12. Today's run for some reason was great up until mile 12.5 when it really became more difficult for me. My left upper calf was beginning to become sore and I had to slow down some. I was too close to finishing my first half marathon distance and finally finished it. I think today was more an anomaly than anything. At least I am hoping it is.

May have pushed the boundaries too much today, but it was worth it. I did my long distance run today and decided I wanted to see if I could hit that magical half marathon distance. Well, I did. I finished my run with 13.17 miles, in 2:20:39.

I can honestly say that I am really tired and my legs are really sore, but it was a really good run.

http://www.runtastic.com/en/users/eric-dickey/sport-sessions/53746772

Pushed the boundaries again running yesterday and went 11.5 miles in 1:46:18. I know I can make the 13.1 miles of the half I am going to run in September, but I want to do more than just conquer the distance. I want to crush the time to do it in. I am setting the goal to run my first half in 1:45:00 minutes. That way I'll have a goal of 3:25:00 when I run my first marathon next year. That's the qualifying time for my age group for the Boston Marathon. That's my ultimate goal: run in and finish Boston with a good time.

It has to be an acive topic, I'm still getting emails when people post to it! LOL

Welcome! I actually was born and grew up in Waco.

Looking good there BTB! Great job on the race!

Also....I'm going to a Chi running workshop next month in Dallas. Why don't you hop a plane and take it with me? If you can't do that, there is an article about the class in the March edition of Runners World. I haven't read it yet but I'm going to tonight.

Here's a link to the workshop.

http://store.chilivi...Workshop-DD0038

Hey Butter if you're in Dallas next month, how 'bout a get together and maybe a run? I'm in one of Dallas' northern suburbs. (Richardson)

So I went to the doctor today for my regular follow-up care visit and found I have begun to develop an enlarged heart from exercising. They ran a bunch of blood tests and an EKG on me to see whether I can continue or not. The doctor seemed to think that I would be OK to continue but I might need more frequent monitoring. Have to wait a week for the results and this week will be long because of that. I don't want to have to give this up.

Mass, will keep you and your health situation in prayer. Praying for a good outcome for you so you don't have to give this up.

I actually did a blog post on playlists a while back..I have three main playlists I listen to when running and they are all too long to list here, but if you want you can view them on my blog. http://randomthoughtsbyeric.blogspot.com/2012/10/using-workout-playlist-to-run-faster.html

Must be a good day for running. New PR for me in the half marathon, 2:03. Still had a little something in the tank at the end.

Nice! Mass, how long have you been running?

Did my long run for the week today and had my best long run yet. I tried out a different park to run in instead of the one I am so accustomed to and I wonder if that may have helped with the run today. Anyway I wound up running 10.6 miles in 2:01:14.

I used a new hydration belt today as well. I knew that I got tired around the 8 mile mark on my run so I bought a hydration belt last week to use. Holds two 6 ounce bottle of Water and has a middle pouch to hold energy chews or whatever. I wound up using all 12 ounces of Water and three of the six energy chews. That seemed to help quite a lot.

Anyway here is the link to the map of the run. http://www.runtastic.com/en/users/eric-dickey/sport-sessions/48009009

Ran my first 10K yesterday. They had 15000 runners so needless to say it was quite crowded. A little too crowded for me. But my official time was 1:11:20. We did have a great time.

Congrats on your first 10K! Good time on it.

Okay, I ran the Form Follows Fitness 5K in Downtown Dallas this morning. I have a new PR, but I am trying to figure out which time is the time I use. My Runtastic App has me at 24:26.04 at the 3.1 mile distance. My official time is 26:35. Now, I started my app as soon as the horn went off, so I had not crossed the start line yet. Either way it was my best run ever and fastest continuous pace ever. http://www.runtastic.com/en/users/eric-dickey/sport-sessions/47755227

Not a distance run, but I did a PB on a 5 k today. Finished in 24.5 min and did not feel at all tired at the end. Nothing like power chords, a driving beat and a personal desire to break personal barriers. My goal in a few months is to break 20 minutes.

All I can say is WOW! One of these days I hope to be able to run the fast.

I thought I would test out my calf today and see just how far I could go on a long run. Considering the fact that I am catching up from not running for a while, it was a good run for me. Nice long and slow. 8.75 miles in 1:41:38. I've trained myself to not need Water for runs of 6 miles or less, but I need to start carrying water and gels for these longer runs, that's for sure. I'm just a little tired now, and a little dehydrated.

Here's the link to the map of my run. http://www.runtastic.com/en/users/eric-dickey/sport-sessions/46395841

I've been following this topic since almost it's inception, and I thought it was time to join in officially. I'm Eric, known on here and on MyFitnessPal as DadTo2. I was sleeved on June 19, 2012 and had a starting weight of 371 and two months after surgery I started running one day on a walk and decided that I like doing that and wanted to do more of it. I started doing slow jogging for a while and in early August of '12 I started the C25K program. I ran my first 5K in the sixth week of the program and had a time of 34:27. Since then I have run 4 other 5K races with an official PR of 29:25. I will be running my 5th 5K race next Saturday.

Currently I am coming off a Grade II Calf Strain which sidelined me from running for the past 5 1/2 weeks, but it seems to be better now, and have run a few times this past week or so. I am going to ramp it up over the next few weeks to get back into training mode. I won't be trying to make up for lost time, but I will instead move my goal of running my first 1/2 Marathon back to September at the Plano Balloon Festival's 1/2 Marathon, in Plano, TX. In between that and now, I will be running two or three 10K races.

By the way, I love the idea of a VST running team. If you have a slot available, I'd like to be a part of that!

Eric

Did a 10.5 mile trail run this morning. It was supposed to be 8 miles but I took a wrong turn on the trail. Didn't matter though, I had a great time. I had a pocket fuel (chocolate haze) and I sat very well with me about half way through the run. Tastes like chocolate Peanut Butter. I only tripped over 2 roots and busted my ass....one slightly skinned knee later I was back in business. No worries though. I must say....I'm completely spent.

Nicely done BTB!