The Crazy Runner

Thinking...............

2011-12-09T16:42:00.003-05:00

So I listened to a podcast today for the 1st time in quite a while. I listened to one of my fave's in The Devoted Runner. I really enjoy listening to Steven and have always foun his show to be entertaining.

Listening to his show kinda got me missing my own show. yes I did have a podcast for any of you (if there are still any of ya - LOL) that might remember it. I looked and I haven't had an episode released since Episode XIX came out back on March 11th. So, maybe I will have to pull out the recorder and mic and try another episode sometime soon.

What do you guys think? Would you like to hear a new episode of The Crazy Runner or should I just keep the show retired? Your thoughts and opinions will be greatly appreciated.

Til Next Time,

The Crazy Runner

We Have a Winner (or two)

2011-04-04T21:30:00.003-04:00

After much anticipation we have winners announced for the contest! The 2 lucky winners for a FREE Sony Walkman W Series wireless MP3 Player are......................................

The Devoted Runner AKA stplatt

AND

Caitline AKA Gonnabehealthy

here is the screen shot of the list generator from random.org

Congrats to the winners. If you could please send me an email I will get the prize out to you as quickly as possible. Please send your email to thecrazyrunner@gmail.com

Congrats to you both! Everyone else, thanks for playing and I really enjoyed all of the quotes, emails, and voice mails I received.

Thank You EVERYONE!!

Addition to contest

2011-03-18T16:01:00.002-04:00

Really want to win an MP3 player?

Well, this is just a short addition to the contest that will allow for entrants to gain an additional TWO entries. All that you need to do is call into the Crazy Runner message line and leave a short message. The message should NOT be about the contest. I would like for these calls to be a story, thoughts on show, a race recap, a training update, advice or thoughts on the show, etc. Nothing specific, just again NOT about the contest. Again, this will get each caller an additional TWO entries into the contest.

You can call in at - (206) 350-0462

Hope to hear from you all soon! :)

March Madness Contest - CrazyRunner style!

2011-03-16T12:34:00.002-04:00

Hello all!

As I had mentioned before, I am having a contest!! In this contest 2 different people will win a FREE Sony Walkman W Series Music Player! If you want more information on this product, please see my product review HERE.

I have been debating on different ways to run this contest. I was considering opening my contest earlier and having each person fill out a NCAA bracket and the winner wins a free player, BUT, I decided that lots of people actually do NOT like basketball and it might turn them off of the contest (I know, shocking right!) Well, since I am not feeling super creative at the moment and really want to get this contest moving, I am going to use a more traditional style "blog contest" giveaway.

The rules should be simple -

1) Contest applies to US residents only (sorry everyone else, but I am shipping this on my own dime!)

2) You must "Follow" my blog so please click on the follow button here.

3) You can gain one entry by commenting on this post (Note, I will give a bonus entry if your comment tells me your favorite all time running quote).

4) You can gain another entry by commenting on my most recent episode post (Episode XIX) at my podcast page at Podbean -- http://thecrazyrunner.podbean.com/

5) For an additional entry, Go to Facebook and tag me (Matthew Swanson) in a post of yours mentioning the contest to others

6) Also for an entry, go to Twitter and tell people about the contest. Make sure to add #CRContest to your post along with an @Crazyrunner

7) I will give one last additional entry if you send me an email (thecrazyrunner@gmail.com) and tell me Which episode of my podcast was your favorite and why.

The contest winners will be chosen randomly from random.org on Champoionship Monday! (Monday, April 4, 2011) Do remember, the more entries you have the better your odds are of winning! Good luck to all of you and I hope that you enjoy the contest. If you have any questions, please do NOT hesitate to ask me. Remember there will be TWO lucky winners

Until next time, buh bye!

Sony Walkman W Series

2011-03-14T14:47:00.006-04:00

REVIEW TIME!

I was recently contacted and given the opportunity to review the Sony Walkman W Series (NWZ-W252) Digital Music Player. This is a wireless, water resistant MP3 player. It is a behind the neck, headphone style player that eliminates the hassle of any headphone wires.

It comes in a nice little sealed package, and as you can see in the picture - the headphones are shaped like a heart. I would say opening it was not easy, but I can NEVER open anything in this style of packaging very easily. After getting it open, I realized how nice and flexible the entire device is - making for very easy storage. It essentially is a very bendable/flexible behind the neck cord attached to what looks like 2 Bluetooth headsets. Many people seem to have a problem with how it looks, but I personally found the look just fine. The package also comes with a USB cable that you hook up to your computer to charge it. This device is AWESOME as far as charging! When fully charged it will play for 11 hours continuously AND even better, you can get 90 minutes of playback time from as little as THREE MINUTES of charging time! With this feature you will never again have to worry about going out for your run and your MP3 player is dead. I think everyone can handle waiting another 3 minutes before they leave.

You can also use the USB cord to install the software on your computer (the software is already in the player, so no need for a CD to install it). It did take a little while for my computer to recognize the player the first time, but to Sony's credit - they tell you this on the instructions. After the first time though, my computer noticed the player instantly.

There are a few different ways in which you can load music onto the player. First off you can use a software such as iTunes (I myself use doubleTwist)along with the Content Transfer program software that you installed Also, you can use Windows Media Player and get music already on your computer or from CDs, etc. And finally you can simply drag and drop into Windows Explorer. They are all very simple to do, and it should not be to difficult for ANYBODY to figure out. This is a 2GB player so it allows for plenty of storage space on such a compact device (Anywhere from 2.5 hours to 83.5 hours depending on the bit rate of the songs you add).

After getting it loaded with some music (or podcasts) I was ready to give it a try! The headphone is an ear-bud style and comes with 3 different sizes to better help fit the ear size of all individuals and are very "rubbery like" (very similar to that of Skull Candy headphones). They seemed plenty comfortable while wearing them for a good hour or so while cleaning up around the house. Also, the sound quality I found to be VERY good with great highs and lows. As I am not used to using a "shuffle stlye" of player it took me a little bit of time to get used to the controls on the player. On the right ear there is a volume up and a volume down button along with what they call a jog lever. With this lever you can skip to the next song or go back to the previous song based on the direction you push the lever. Also, you can push in the lever and use a feature called "Zappin". In the Zappin mode the player will play short recognizable clips of the songs (such as most melodic or rhythmical sections). There is either a Zappin Short or a Zappin Long option (short plays about 4 seconds, while long plays about 15 seconds). On the left ear, there is 1 button. This button allows for you to play the songs in a random/shuffled order. Also, you can hold the button in for a second and play an already prepared playlist. Again, these features were all very nice and easy to use, though it did take a little bit of time for me to get the hang of as I am not used to a "shuffle" style of MP3 player. After having cleaned up for a while, it was time to give them the ultimate test as I needed to do a 6 mile run for the day! While wearing them on the run, they still felt very comfortable though I will say there was a slight slippage as I felt after about every mile I felt the need to re adjust the headphones to make sure that they were securely inside the ear. However, after about 4.5 miles, I started to get a LOT more sweaty - which was no problem on the sound or functioning as these headphones are water resistant. With me being sweatier, it felt like they were slipping out a lot more. I then felt the need to adjust them like every 0.25 miles. I will say though that the sounds quality and comfort remained good. I will say though before anyone gets to judgmental that I never can get ear buds to stay in very good. So I do not always know if it is the headphones or just my weird ears. LOL. I will add though that I do have a pair of headphones, which are ear buds, that I wear now that I absolutely LOVE! These are called YurBuds and they are AWESOME and it seems like no matter what you do they will not fall out unless you physically take them out. (and I normally HATE any type of ear buds) I will be honest enough also to note that if I had NOT ever found YurBuds, I probably would have like this player A LOT more then I do. I still find the player to be a very nice product with some awesome features. I also found it to be a lot better for regular use that doesn't get one as sweaty/wet. So overall I would say that these were very good headphones, just a little to much slippage for my personal taste.

If you are interested, here is a link that was provided to me from the company allowing all of you to purchase this wireless music player at a discounted price of $48.99 instead of the retail price of $60. www.sony.com/runningmate

Later today, or tomorrow I plan to release all of the information for my CONTEST available where 2 lucky people will both win one of these for FREE!

Overall grade - 3.5/5

TCR Episode XIX - It's Been A While

2011-03-11T23:18:00.002-05:00

Welcome back everyone as I bring you Episode 19!

It sure has been a while! Do you remember who I am? LOL -- Join me today as I record once again for the first time since mid October! There is a lot to go over in this episode and I didn't want a 10 hour long episode, so this is more of a short summary/recap of the past 5 months of the life of the Crazy Runner.

I hope you enjoy the episode, and continue to come back, as I have full intentions of getting these out more regularly now and to NOT lose my recorder again!

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Central Florida 5Klub

Brooks ID

Team Mojo Loco - Independent Relay Team or our blog site

Disney Marathon - RunDisney

Check out and motivate Grant on the Daily Mile!

Follow Maddy on Twitter!

Baldwin Park Half Marathon Results

Disney Marathon Results - the picture there is NOT me - LOL

Tavares Orange Blossom Half Marathon Results

Earth Day 12k Page - Clermont, FL

Arbor Day Run for the Trees 5k - Ocklawaha, FL

This Running Life Podcast

The Devoted Runner

The Slow Runner's Club

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"End of the World" - Great Big Sea

Download this episode (right click and save)

Hello - I still exist!

2011-01-13T20:11:00.002-05:00

Hey all!

Just a short note to say that I have not dropped off of the face of the Earth! (Especially to any of you who dont follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or DailyMile)

I plan to try REALLY hard to record a new episode of the podcast tomorrow (may have to be a 2 parter as it has been so long since I did one - LOL). SO, hopefully, in the next few days (maybe Sunday?) I hope to FINALLY have Episode XIX out for you all to enjoy (or hate - LOL)

Til next time,

Buh Bye!

Interesting Graph

2010-10-30T21:08:00.004-04:00

Here is an interesting graph of all of the 5k road races that I have ran.

TCR Episode XVIII - The WWFOR

2010-10-17T15:31:00.002-04:00

Welcome back everyone as I bring you Episode 18!

Join me today as I record while back out running on the roads! I will go over my recent training and upcoming events along with a recap of my recently ran Worldwide Festival of Races that I ran with my good friend Grant on Saturday morning, October 9, 2010.

I also give a Worldwide Festival of Races update, play a promo for the Fishadad Podcast, update you on the Disney Marathon weekend, and play an awesome race recap of the Chicago Marathon from Adam of the Oral Sox Podcast.

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Worldwide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub

Brooks ID

Team Mojo Loco - Independent Relay Team or our blog site

Disney Marathon - RunDisney

Check out and motivate Grant on the Daily Mile!

Fishadad Podcast

Oral Sox Podcast

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"(Say Hey) I Love You" - Michael Franti and Spearhead

Download this episode (right click and save)

TCR Episode XVII - The Miracle Miles 15k

2010-10-05T19:45:00.003-04:00

Welcome back everyone as I bring you Episode 17!

Join me today as I record while NOT running for the first time ever! I will go over my recent training and upcoming events along with a race recap of my recently ran Miracle Miles 15k in Orlando, FL on 9/25.

I also give a Worldwide Festival of Races update, read a short story from the Mid-Packers Lament, update you on the Mojo Loco, and read a new iTunes review.

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Worldwide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub

Brooks ID

Team Mojo Loco - Independent Relay Team or our blog site

Disney Marathon - RunDisney

Blogs And/Or Podcasts of Team Mojo Loco Participants:

The Mid-Packers Lament

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"Stumbling In" - Great Big Sea

Download this episode (right click and save)

TCR Episode XVI - The Golden Ocala 10k for 9/11

2010-09-19T22:45:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone and Welcome back once again for Episode 16!

Join me today as I return to recording from the road! I will go over my recent training and upcoming events along with a race recap of my recently ran Golden Ocala 10k for 9/11.

I also give a Worldwide Festival of Races update, play a promo for the RunningPodcasts.org, give a Disney Marathon update, read a blog comment, and play a Voice Mail from Gordon!.

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Worldwide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub

Brooks ID

Team Mojo Loco - Independent Relay Team or our blog site

Disney Marathon - RunDisney

RunningPodcasts.org

Team Sasquatch or visit him on Twitter

Blogs And/Or Podcasts of Team Mojo Loco Participants:

Leg Workout Videos

Fort Cooper State Park

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"Sweat" - Darren Geffre

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode XV - The Show About Nothing

2010-09-09T07:27:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone and Welcome to Episode 15!

Join me today as I talk to you once again from the Hamster Wheel! I will talk a lot about NOTHING today as I go over my recent training and upcoming events, and various other random thoughts in my head.

I also give a Worldwide Festival of Races update, play a promo for the Phedippidations podcast, give a Disney Marathon update, and play a couple of Voice Mails.

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Worldwide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub

Brooks ID

Team Mojo Loco - Independent Relay Team or our blog site

Disney Marathon - RunDisney

Phedippidations

Team Sasquatch or visit him on Twitter

My NEW Headphones I ordered

Swagbucks

Cewtwo

Jen's Blog and her DailyMile Page - Friend Her PLEASE!

Blogs And/Or Podcasts of Team Mojo Loco Participants:

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"Dare To Dream" - Adam Ilami

Download this episode (right click and save)

TCR Episode XIV - Running Etiquette

2010-08-26T18:58:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone and Welcome to Episode 14!

Go out with me today as I talk to you about my recent training under Coach Sasquatch, the 100 push-up challenge, my "food experiment" update, Team Mojo Loco, my recent purchase on Amazon, my son starting school, and running etiquette.

I also give a Worldwide Festival of Races update, play a promo for the Run Run Live podcast, give a Disney Marathon update, talk about my sons first day of school and even play a short clip of our walk home from his bus stop after his first day!

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Worldwide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub

Brooks ID

Team Mojo Loco - Independent Relay Team or our blog site

Disney Marathon

Run Run Live Blog and Podcast

Team Sasquatch or visit him on Twitter

My NEW Headphones I ordered

Swagbucks

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"Bad Manners" - Evil Wiener

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode XIII - Motivation

2010-08-19T21:50:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone and Welcome to Episode 13!

Go out with me today as I talk to you about my recent training with my new coach, the 100 push-up challenge, my "food experiment" update, Team Mojo Loco, running movies, and motivating others.

I also read a blog comment (with response), read some new iTunes reviews, introduce you all to a great podcast and play a new, AWESOME voice mail I received for you all to hear from my DailyMile friend Holly T!

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Worldwide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub

Brooks ID

Team Mojo Loco - Independent Relay Team

Disney Marathon

Holly's Motivation Blog

Early Morning Cruzin

Movie - Saint Ralph

Movie - Run for Your Life

Movie - Ultramarathon Man - 50 Marathons, 50 States, 50 Days

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"Hit the ground and Run" - Great Big Sea

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode XII - Benefits of Coaching

2010-08-05T02:01:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone and Welcome to Episode 12!

Go out with me today as I talk to you about my new coach, my "food experiment", my recent training, Team Mojo Loco, and the benefits of having a coach.

I also once again ask for some more feedback as I explain why my original topic for Episode 12 has been delayed, read a blog comment, and play a new voice mail I received for you all to hear from Mr Bubba Simcox!

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Worldwide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub

Brooks ID

Team Mojo Loco - Independent Relay Team

Maddy Hubbard, Marathon Chris, Steve Runner, Norman Rosenberg, Adam Tinkoff, Eddie Marathon, SamanthaUF - All/most of these people have blogs or podcasts which you should be able to find from these links

Team Sasquatch

The Devoted Runner - he might be able to help with the whereabouts of Bubba!

SORRY IF I FORGOT ANYTHING - I TEND TO BE FORGETFUL!

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"What have you Learned?" - Carbon Leaf

Other song provided today:

"I know, you know" (The Theme to Psych) - Friendly Indians

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode XI - Overcoming Excuses

2010-07-23T15:27:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone and Welcome to Episode 11!

Go out with me today as I talk to you about recent birthdays, my recent training/running, The Citrus Summer Showdown 5k, and talk about overcoming other people's excuses!

I also once again ask for some more feedback, read some email and blog comments, and play a new voice mail I received for you all to hear!

Also, I ask for input on my upcoming Episode XII topic that I tell you about in this Episode!

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Jen's Blog

Running to Disney

Worldwide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub

Brooks ID

Citrus Summer Showdown 5k Results

Smoothie Recipe Site Jen mentions

Team Mojo Loco - Independent Relay Team

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)

"No More Excuses" - Kill The Alarm

Download this episode (right click and save)

2010-07-09T20:41:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone and Welcome to Episode 10!

Go out with me today as I go out on a run for my 100th consecutive day! Also I will give you a race report from my recent running at the Ocala Freedom Run 4 Miler on the 4th! This episode will speak about consistent running and the benefits that it will provide for you. I also am preparing for a 5k race this coming Saturday (July 10th) which is on a very tough course.

I also once again ask for some more feedback, read an email, read a blog comment, and play 2 new voice mails I received for you all to hear!

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Jen's Blog

Danielle's Blog

No More Chub Rub - Wife's friend

Slender Swan (wife's blog)

Running to Disney

Worldwide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub

Brooks ID

Ocala Freedom Run 4 on the 4th

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"An Ordinary Man" - Matthew Ebel

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode IX - Summer HEAT

2010-06-28T19:35:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone and Welcome to Episode 9!

Go out with me today as I do a very RARE thing fore me! I run in the MORNING! (and it is not even for a race!) In today's episode I talk about running in the heat of the summer time! I also discuss the progress of my friends, give you some updates on me since my last episode, give you my sports team updates, talk about my upcoming race, whine a little, and some various other items.

I also once again ask for some more feedback, read an email, and play a new voice mail I received for you all to hear!

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Jen's Blog

Danielle's Blog

No More Chub Rub - Wife's friend

Slender Swan (wife's blog)

Kingdoms of Camelot game

Vegan Running Mom - Run Vegan Run

Steven Platt - The Devoted Runner
Run Reviews

Worldwide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub
Brooks ID

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"Consequence Free" - Great Big Sea

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode VIII - Inspire Daily

2010-06-14T21:10:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone and Welcome to Episode 8!

Today you can go out with me as I return after only 1 week removed from my last episode! THIS IS YET ANOTHER PR FOR ME! LOL I discuss my recent week of training, an update on my running streak, and what has been done recently to inspire me and and gotten me to inspire others to better their lifestyle!

I also ask for some help with ideas for future episodes and for more input from others to help improve my show. You also will get to hear a few different voice mails that I received from people!

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Jen's Blog

Danielle's Blog

No More Chub Rub - Wife's friend

Slender Swan (wife's blog)

Kingdoms of Camelot game

Vegan Running Mom - Run Vegan Run

Steven Platt - The Devoted Runner
Gordon - Running to Disney

Central Florida 5Klub
Brooks ID

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"The Mermaid" - Great Big Sea

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode VII - Who is this?

2010-06-07T15:30:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone and welcome to Episode 7!

Today you can go out with me and and try to remember exactly WHO I AM? Listen as I recap the past 3 MONTHS of running and life in my attempts to get this show going regularly!

I also would like to give special thanks to Connie for her awesome race report from the Country Music Half Marathon!

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Country Music Marathon
Winter Park Road Race 10k results
Earth Day 12K results
Central Florida 5Klub
Brooks ID
Ocala Grace Race 5k Results

Lake Louisa 5K results

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro)
"Here & Now" - Great Big Sea

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode VI - The Contest

2010-03-01T21:14:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 6!

Today you can go out with me and learn about my recent running, Brooks ID, upcomming races, and last but not least "The Contest"

The episode also contains a couple of new versions of things from prior episodes such as dog attacks and a visit from our good friend St3ven AKA "The Devoted Runner".

Here are some links to some mentioned items from the show:

Country Music Marathon
The Devoted Runner
Winter Park Road Race 10K
Earth Day 12K
Burning 2010 - Adam Tinkoff
Central Florida 5Klub
Brooks ID
Brooks Weat Test Program

Today's music was brought to you by Music Alley

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro & excerpts)
"Running in Place" - Sunspot

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode V - The Return of The Crazy Runner

2010-02-12T15:06:00.003-05:00

I'm Ba-ack!

The Crazy Runner returns with a bang to bring you the 5th episode of the podcast after a nearly 3 more absence.

This episode will briefly summarize the happenings in the past 3 months of my running, racing, and life occurences in general. I will apologize upfront if anyone does not like the "Barbershop" music in the episode. If you don't like it, Oh well! LOL

Sites mentioned in this episode

Maddy Runs
Central Florida 5Klub

Music in today's episode:

Today's music was brought to you by http://www.musicalley.com/

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro & excerpts)
"Go the Distance" - Danny the Multitracker

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode 4 - Failure Brings Success

2009-11-15T14:39:00.003-05:00

The Crazy Runner is back once again with Episode 4! Tune in as I explain 2 weeks of failed long runs and discuss various topics including Gordon of Run to Disney's latest episode of his podcast, my upcoming half marathon, and some other things.MUSIC Today's music was brought to you by http://www.musicalley.com/ "Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro & excerpts) "Lonely Boy" - Black Lab

Also mentioned in this episode was:
Run to Disney
Run Vegan Run
Buttar.com
Central Florida 5Klub
RunningPodcasts.org
The Devoted RunnerRemember if you want to get in contact with me send me an email at thecrazyrunner@gmail.com, leave a comment here on the blog, send me a tweet at www.twitter.com/crazyrunner, follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crazyrunner, or leave me a Voice Mail at 206-337-6871 Hope You enjoy the show!

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode 3 - WWFOR - Swanson House Half

2009-10-21T23:36:00.003-04:00

After yet another 3 weeks in waiting, The Crazy Runner is back with Episode 3! Tune in as I apologize once again for taking so long to get this podcast out there for everyone and decide that odds are this show will be produced every 2 to 3 weeks. I also recap my running of "The Swanson House Half" as I run my race for the WWFOR.

MUSIC

Today's music was brought to you by http://www.musicalley.com/

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro & excerpts)
"Running" - Allison Crowe

Remember if you want to get in contact with me send me an email at thecrazyrunner@gmail.com, leave a comment here on the blog, send me a tweet at www.twitter.com/crazyrunner, follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crazyrunner, or leave me a Voice Mail at 206-337-6871

Hope You enjoy the show!

Download this episode (right click and save)

Updated Marathon Training Plan

2009-09-30T10:49:00.002-04:00

I had to recently update my training plan after removing my 2 October races due to my son's T-Ball and adding in a different half marathon on November 14th

Hope you enjoy both the schedule and Episode 2 of The Crazy Runner which was released last night!

Training Schedule2

Episode 2 - Not to Shabby

2009-09-29T23:36:00.004-04:00

After 3 weeks in waiting, The Crazy Runner is back with Episode 2! Tune in as I apologize for taking so long to get this podcast out there for everyone and as I recap the 2 races that I ran since the last episode.
MUSIC

Today's music was brought to you by http://www.musicalley.com/

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro & excerpts)
"Walk on the Moon" - Great Big Sea

Remember if you want to get in contact with me send me an email at thecrazyrunner@gmail.com, leave a comment here on the blog, send me a tweet at www.twitter.com/crazyrunner, follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crazyrunner, or leave me a Voice Mail at 206-337-6871

Hope You enjoy the show!

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode 1 - Welcome!

2009-09-09T19:32:00.003-04:00

Episode 1 is FINALLY here. Tune in and listen as I introduce my podcast and give out special thanks to those who helped get The Crazy Runner going (special apologies are given to Adam "The Zen Runner" Tinkoff - as he was also supposed to be thanked, but being episode 1 things can easily be forgotten - he must use his zen power to power some dogs in this episode - LOL. Another thanks to be given to Dirt Dawg for his help in getting this podcast published for everyone to hear

MUSIC

Today's music was brought to you by http://www.musicalley.com/

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro & excerpts)
"Ordinary Day" - Great Big Sea

Sites mentioned during the episode are:

World Wide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub

Download this episode (right click and save)

IT'S ORDERED!

2009-08-26T16:31:00.002-04:00

Hello Everyone!

Just a short update to let everyone know that the production of my podcast is getting closer and closer. Today I officially ordered my mic and my digital audio recorder! I am so anxious for them to arrive. I feel like a little kid at Christmas time!

I also made a little "hand-drawing" of a logo for the podcast, and a co-worker of mine is helping to make it a digital file and spice it up a little!

Things are comming together nicely, now just to get everything in, start recording and get episode 1 released!

I am about to go home and go out on my 6 mile run today. This is an easier week this week for training as I get 3 days off! It is supposed to be a 6,5,5,6 week. I am however going to move my 6 on Sunday up to 10 since I completely missed my 10 mile long run on week 3. So this week will still only be 26 miles, then next week steps up to 30!

So training is going good, I think the "cough" is pretty much completely gone, and I am excited to get this podcast going!

I will keep everyone updated!

Til Next Time.

Buh-Bye Jacksonville! / Celebration of Running 5K

2009-08-17T14:10:00.008-04:00

Hello Everybody!

I start this blog out with sadness in saying that my running of the Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon in October is no longer going to be happening. :( - I will still run on my own though in the World Wide Festival of Races Half Marathon :)

The reason I will not be running in the half marathon then is that is the day of my son's FIRSE EVER T-Ball game! I could not miss this for ANYTHING! This is a short 2 month league, so my Saturdays from October 3 til the end of November are now filled. This also means I will have to cancel my running of the Big Pig Jig in Bushnell, FL on October 17th. For this, I say sorry to the rest of the Central Florida 5Klub, but I will feel to badly if I miss my son's t-ball games.

In other running news, Week 3 of my training plan was a DISASTER! I have been sick all week! Being sick at the begining of the week had me decide to change up some of my schedule for the week. Monday was a cross training day, so I just decided to take the day off. On Tuesday, I still was not feeling any better, so I decided to move my Thursday REST DAY to Tuesday and give myself another day of recovery. On Wednesday, I did get back out there and did 5 miles and was "thinking" I was feeling a little better. Thursday, I figured to be safe, I would do the scheduled 5 miles, but would make it an easy run instead of a Tempo Run. Friday, I made my way to my friend's house in Groveland, FL as we had a race to run on Saturday in Orlando. We had planned to run together on Friday night as I had 4 miles planned for the day. But visiting with friends, chatting, and playing old-school NES caused this to not happen (I did kick his butt at Double Dragon though). We finally got to bed around 1:30 AM and had to be up by 6am for the race.

I awoke fine though and was ready for the race (or so I thought). At 6:30 our small group (4 to be exact) met up and rode together to downtown Orlando for the Celebration of Running 5K presented bt Track Shack as the started off their Grand Prix series of races. (I was Bib # 590 If anyone wants to look up my results) Upon arrival we did not have time to run our SWAG bag and t-shirt back to the car, so we just decided to "hide it" in some nearby bushes. A little bit later, the race of 1,747 runners was off! I was not ready for the start of the race when it happened and my Forerunner 305 was not yet ready and was still "Locating Satelites". About a half mile in it finally located them (I guessed nearly 2,000 runners and being in downtown Orlando had something to do with that)! I was still feeling fine at this point and kept on moving at a good pace (somewhere around 7:30). However, about a half mile later I reached the 1 mile mark in around 8 minutes flat and then the COUGHING started. Just when I thought all the sickness was gone IT'S BA-ACK!!! I then slogged my way though the course while hacking up my lungs for the next 2.1 miles! I did finally come to the finish line and finished the Celebration of Running 5K in a time of 24:55 (according to my D-Tag Timing chip on my shoe anyways). I felt horrible after the race and just wanted to lay down.

After the race we all went out to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then I headed home to my family. Upon arriving home I ended up taking a nice, long nap as I had a 10 mile long run planned for Sunday. Sunday came and my mind was ready for it's 10-miler! I had a course all planned out and was going to run it around 5pm when the weather cooled down. However, I had kept coughing all day long and was still not feeling perfect. PLUS, upon getting close to 5pm I saw that a really bad storm was approaching us, and figured between my sickness and the nearby storm, the last thing I wanted was to be 5 miles away from my house hacking up my lungs while a monsoon was comming down on me. So, as hard as it was to do, I decided to skip my long run for the week. So, in a week that I was supposed to run 27.1 miles, I only managed to run 13.18 miles! HORRIBLE.

Well, this is now a new week with no races so hopefully things will go much beeter and I will get my miles in (and please let me be cough free). I have 29 miles on schedule this week with a 10 miler on Sunday! Hopefully all goes well!

I still have full intentions on starting The Crazy Runner Podcast. I was waiting for finances to get right until I could get a digital recorder and a microphone before I started it, however, I might just go ahead and record with my headset for a while just to get my podcast out there and started. NO MORE EXCUSES! So hopefully within 2 weeks I can have AT LEAST episode 1 out there for everyone to hear. I can always switch the format to a runcast once I get the equipment, but at least this will be something in the meantime

Til Next Time!

¿ I better Slow Down ?

2009-08-05T11:02:00.003-04:00

Hello Once Again !

Well I am now officially into the middle of Week 2 of my training plan!

Week 1 of my training went well! I finished the week with 5 runs, totaling 26.45 Miles. On Monday, I went to my parents house and enjoyed a nice walk with my mom around the neighborhood for just under 2.5 miles. This is not technically Cross Training, but, It will do! Tuesday and Wednesday I did nice easy runs of 4 miles each. On Thursday, my wife was off work and it allowed me to run in the afternoon and not get up so early. WooHoo SLEEP! That afternoon having more time, I did my Friday workout instead as it was a little longer. I did a 5 mile Tempo run with a 1 mile warm up and cool down with 3 miles of tempo run. On Friday, I had another nice easy run of 4 miles also. Saturday was to be my rest day, even though I do not know how restful it was as I went tubing down the Rainbow River in Dunnellon, FL - I think this wore me out more then my runs do LOL. I then ended my week on Sunday, with the 1st long run of my training by doing a 9 miler.

I do not know if I was just having a week that I was doing well in or if it is something I need to look out for, BUT, every single run I did this week (including my long run) I ran a little faster then I had scheduled myself to run. Each day, it seemed as I was running about 10-15 seconds per mile to fast! On Sunday, while on my long run I took a picture of the sign you see at the top of this blog as I found it pretty amusing that on a week where I am running to quickly that I came upon a sign warning drivers to SLOW DOWN. To top the "speed week" off I got pulled over for Speeding on Monday afternoon (luckily I only got a warning). I guess I am just trying to do EVERYTHING to quickly. I better slow down before I get injured.

I am now half way through week 2 and am still feeling great! I will update everyone early next week as to how week 2 went.

ALSO, If anyone is in Florida and is interested in doing any running or races with me, just let me know. My schedule is posted and here is a link of my upcoming races from now until Jan 10, 2010:

August 15, 2009 - Celebration of Running 5K - Orlando, FL
September 12, 2009 - Rock 'N' Run 5K - Orlando, FL
September 19, 2009 - Run for Autism 5K - Ocala, FL
October 3, 2009 - Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon - Jacksonville, FL
October 18, 2009 - Big Pig Jig 5K - Bushnell, FL
November 26, 2009 - YMCA Turkey Trot 5K - Ocala, FL
December 5, 2009 - Reindeer Run 5K - Ocala, FL
January 10, 2010 - Walt Disney World Marathon - Orlando, FL

As far as I know that is the complete list, who knows what can still happen, I love races!

Hope You Enjoy,

Til Next Time

IT IS OFFICIAL!

2009-07-31T08:44:00.002-04:00

HELLO EVERYBODY!

It Is OFFICIAL!!!!!

As of 8:45am on Friday, July 31, 2009 I have registered for the 2010 Walt Disney World Marathon! After the entrance fee and the Processing Fee through active.com for registering ($125.00 and $8.63) I am now out $133.63 and could not be more excited about it! JANUARY 10, 2010 at 5:50 am I will be at the starting line (or a good mile back LOL as 20,000+ other runners will be there also). I encourage you all to come out and run it with me. We will have a BLAST!

ALSO, in other exciting news, I have decided that I too want to venture into the podcasting world! I want to join the rest of my friends on the run-net community and contribute another running podcast for all to enjoy. I just downloaded Audacity for editing everything and also opened an account with Podbean. Now, I just need to go out and get a Digital Audio Recorder that has a USB input and a Microphone. (I will gladly accept donations or if anyone has an old one that they no longer use).

I am 5 days into my training plan and things could not be better.

I will keep you all updated

Til Next Time

My Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon/Disney Marathon Training Plan

2009-07-28T09:26:00.002-04:00

Here is my training plan for both the Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon on October 3rd and the Disney Marathon on January 10th. The 2 plans overlap by 4 weeks.

I was gonna do the Runner's World Smart Coach Plan for the Half and the Hal Higdon Intermediate II plan for the full. This however was not easy to do because of that 4 week long overlap. So I decided to merge them together and make 1 big 24 week long training plan that I call the "Hal Higdon Smart Coach Intermediate II Plan". Kind of a long title, but it is exactly what it is, a combo of the 2 plans put together.

Training Schedule

Random Pics

2009-07-22T08:16:00.009-04:00

Here are a few random pics from one of my recent runs where I ran from my house to the Santos Trailhead, a loop in there, and then back home. Hope you enjoy!

Don't mind the picture quality as these were taken with my phone instead of my regular digital camera

I came upon him on my run to the trail. As I took my phone out to take the picture of him, he walked right up to me

Here is the entrance to the Santos Trailhead (actually is a mountain bike trail, but I love to run it) - This is actually a part of the Cross Florida Greenway a trail that runs right through the entire state, coast to coast

Which trail should I take?

Why the yellow one of course (It is the easiest one, and remember these are mountain bike trails, so none of them are that easy on runners)

Here is a quick snap shot of a part of the trail (one of the only parts that actually are in open space not surrounded by trees)

One last picture which I did not take but I figured I would throw in anyways as it is another show of the Santos trailhead taken with a much better camera then my junky little camera phone.

Citrus Summer Showdown

2009-07-15T11:54:00.004-04:00

Hello Everyone!

So, this past Saturday I ran in another race. This makes 2 races in 2 weeks! This race was the Inverness Citrus Summer Showdown which is a 5K trail run in Inverness, FL. I ran this same race last year, and I must say that this is a TOUGH race. This year though, I had the pleasure of my mom doing the race with me as this was her 2nd ever 5K. The best part about this race is that it is completely FREE. That's right F-R-E-E, FREE!

We were running behind and did arrive at the race site pretty late. I basically had time to get my bib number, get my chip timing device, go to the bathroom, and then off to the starting line! My friend Grant was supposed to be running this event also, but he got sick the night before and decided to skip it. Me and my mom did not get to line up together at the starting line though as the women started their race 15 minutes after then men did.

As the race started I took off with the pack! About a quarter mile into the race I looked down at my Garmin and saw I was running at a 6:30 mile pace. I thought "What the hell am I doing!!" and proceeded to slow my pace down (this way I could FINISH the race - LOL) I passed the 1 mile mark at 7:48 and was feeling wonderful. About another half a mile in, at around the half-way mark, I came to the only water station on the course where I decided to go ahead and take a cup. I did however only take a small sip of the water then doused my head with the rest of the cup. This felt GREAT as trail runs in Central Florida during the midst of summer do not bring about good temperatures or humidity! I finished the 2nd mile in 8:04 and was starting to feel pretty tired. The final mile was dragging on as my body was becoming more and more tired as I am not used to running on trails and keeping an eye out on the trail for roots and other things to make you lose your footing. I finished the 3rd mile in 8:09 and was ready for the race to come to an end. I finally crossed the finish line in a total time of 24:11, which is actually my 4th best 5K time to date (nothing to complain about). I then went and met my dad and my two sons as I awaited my mom to cross the finish line. She eventually reached the line and finished in a little over 52 minutes. This was about 1 minute slower then her 1st ever 5K but I was very proud of her as this was probably by far the hardest course she will ever do AND she had not really trained at all for.

I finished the race in 83rd overall out of about 300 runners. I was the 30th place "Adult" as this race is broken down into Middle School, High School, College, and Adult instead of the regular 5 year age groups. This race is actually full with a lot of high school aged kids as a lot of school's have their cross country teams come out and participate in this race and get them ready for the upcoming season.

We then gathered the troops and went out for a nice breakfast before coming home for the day.

I will soon be posting some pictures from one of my recent training runs where I just went out and relaxed on a nice 10 mile run.

Til next time!

4 on the 4th

2009-07-05T22:26:00.004-04:00

Hello to all my fellow runners!

So,another race has come and gone. This past Saturday (The 4th of July) I arose by myself without any other members of the Central Florida 5Klub to participate with me in the God & Country Day Freedom Run 4 Miler. This is an annual event held in Ocala, FL to support the Marion County Veteran's Memorial Park. I arrived at the race 45 minutes prior to the start of the event and got my bib number (133), T-Shirt, and SWAG bag. I pinned my number onto my shirt and brought my bag and shirt back to my car. After lots of walking around and a short warm up run I was ready for the race to begin.

The race had perfectly blue skies and the temperature was great. The humidity was pretty high, but then again, this is FLORIDA. I passed by mile marker 1 in a time of 7:43 and was feeling great. After a small loop I finished the 2nd mile in a time of 7:47 and was still feeling pretty good. Shortly after the 2 mile mark I was getting a little tired and ran up to the only water station on the course. I was pretty thirsty at this point so I actually walked the water station to make sure that I got as much water in me as possible. I finished the 3rd mile in a time of 8:09 - A little slow, but not to bad considering that I had walked through the aid station. A little after mile marker 3, we passed by a guy that every single runner in the race LOVED. This guy was nicely standing outside of his house at the edge of the road where he had a hose that he put the water nozzle onto MIST and he refreshed everyone superbly with a wonderful misting that completely rejuvenated me. With about a quarter mile to go in the race, there was a person there handing out a small flag to all of the runners. I crossed the finish line shortly after with a smile on my face and a flag in my hand as my 4th and final mile was my fastest of the entire race which i completed in 7:28 to make my overall finishing time 31:07. This time put me in 55th place overall and 6th in my age group. I am not positive on the number of total runners as the results are yet to be posted online. My guess would be roughly somewhere from 200-300 runners. I did run into a couple of people that ran in the event that I had not seen for a number of years and it was nice to get to catch up with them.

At the awards presentation they actually were giving out some prizes by randomly drawing race bib numbers from people that ran in the event. I was shocked to find out that I actually had a little luck run my way and I, Mr. Never Wins ANYTHING, actually had my number drawn and I won a 3x5 American Flag complete with the mounting kit. I was happy to get this as I missed winning an age group award my just over 1 minute.

I then came home and spent a nice day with my family as we just relaxed and enjoyed the holiday.

I will eventually list the official results on a future posting assuming that they are ever posted online (which I assume they will be as prior runnings of this same race have been).

I do have a 5K race planned for this coming Saturday in Inverness, FL which is F-R-E-E FREE ---- AND you still get a t-shirt.

Well, I will keep you all updated.

Til Next Time

RESULTS ARE NOW POSTED

I got 55th out of 266 (top 20%) and 6th in my age group out of 13. Also I was the 46th place Male (meaning only 9 women finished ahead of me)

To see the official results click here.

Mornings?

2009-06-24T19:56:00.002-04:00

Hello Everybody! (sung like Charlie on Lost)

Well, today I started doing the one thing that I NEVER thought I would do. I woke up early and ran BEFORE work. I got up a little after 5:30am and went out and completed a 5.5 mile run. I must say that it was much better then I figured it would be. I even had to work until 7pm tonight (2 hours later then normal) and still do not feel exhausted!

I decided to try morning runs for a few different reasons.

1) It is way to hot in the afternoon now as lately when I get home from work the heat index has been around 105! And that just makes for miserable running at a SLOW pace. This morning it was still very humid out, but it was nice because the temperature was only about 75.

2) It rarely rains here in the morning hours but feels like it is always raining in the afternoon with thunderstorms.

3) Wakes me up in the morning allowing me to be more energetic at work and not dragging in rubbing my eyes as I enter the office

4) It allows me to concentrate on my work. When I run after work I feel like I spend half of my day there thinking about my run for the day, how far I will run, mapping out a course for my run, and other various things that prevent me from concentrating on and competing my work.

5) Allows me more time after work to get things done around the house and spend time with my 2 boys other then just going out running.

6) Less traffic on the road making my runs more safe.

I am sure that there are more reason that I have just failed to realize or am not thinking of at this time, but I feel that this list is a plenty big enough reason to start trying it out.

Day 1 was a success for me, now let's just see how the rest of the week goes

Also, one other thing which could be interesting in the future is that my brother in-law said that he wants to start running. He just went out and got some running shoes, now I will do my best to hold him to it. I will gladly help him out and try to bring yet another new runner into the Run Net Community. So I now say in hopes that I don't get sued for copyright infringement (LOL Dan) ERIC, GO RUN!!

Til next time

Dreams, Festivals, and Blisters

2009-06-11T12:07:00.003-04:00

Hello Once again!

It is I, the Crazy Runner, once again with a new blog post to keep everyone updated on myself.

Now that I am getting closer to 30, I have finally decided on what I want as my long term career goal. With the life of a professional athlete not seeming like it could happen, I have decided that I would like to eventually open up my very own running store right here in Ocala, FL. Running stores are great and are the true backbone of any running community. I think this would be a great thing that I would love to do AND there currently are ZERO running stores in Ocala at the moment (unless you count major sporting chains like Dick's or Sports Authority). There is obviously a lot of work to be put into starting a business but, that is why it is a LONG term goal. I obviously would need some financial backing or any small business grants would be super. If anyone has any ideas for the store OR helpful suggestions on getting a business started I would LOVE any advise that anyone could offer to help me out in any way at all.

So last week, I went out on a nice 7 mile run for my first run in like 10 days. This proved to be a mistake. Not the run itself, but the fact that I decided to wear my custom ortotics on this run. You see, all the prior running I had done in them so far was on my treadmill, and well, I quickly learned that running the roads is a lot harder on my feet then the treadmill is. After this run, I realized that I had gotten a nice blister on each foot right on the side of the foot at the arch. This did not feel pleasant at all. Plus I started to get a little bit of runner's toe again as my nail was killing me on one of my toes on my left foot. Well, tons of band-aids and a little rest later I have been back out running again. I will say that I have not worn the orthotics for running in since then (I am wearing them for daily use though). I will soon once again venture out onto the roads with them on some much shorter runs and see if the results are any better OR if I need to take them in and have something done with them so that they do not kill me LOL

Before ending this post, I would like to either remind or inform everybody (depending on who you are) to go sign up for the 2009 World Wide Festival of Races. Here you can sign up to run in the Worldwide Half Marathon, the Zen Run 10K, or the Kick the Couch 5K. These races are absolutely free for everyone. It actually is a virtual race that anyone can do on their own course in their neighborhood, or they can run an actual race and register that time for the event. The WWFOR will take place on the weekend of October 10-11 (or within a week if doing a scheduled race-just send an email to the director of WWFOR and make sure it is OK) and I strongly recommend everybody go out and register. This is the original virtual race (Nike did copy them with their virtual 10K race) and currently has 355 entrants from 24 different countries signed up for it. I myself will be running in the Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon on October 3rd in Jacksonville, FL to obtain my time for the World Wide Half.

Again, I strongly recommend everyone both go sign up and let others know about this event.

If anyone has any advice or comments I would love to hear from everyone.

Til Next Time

I'm Ba-ack!

2009-06-04T09:12:00.003-04:00

Hello once again everyone!

Wow, it sure has been a while since I posted anything new to my blog (partially because my running has been pretty non-existent as of late).

Well, yesterday was my first day of running in over a week, as the last time I ran was on Sunday the 24th. Man, I sure have been a slacker lately. I think it really hurt my running with the combo of my headphones broke and all the non stop rain we got here for like 4-5 days straight (and I got sick of only running on the dreadmill). But now, the weather is clearing up, and I got my new headphones in the mail and I love them. I got the Sennheiser PMX-70's which sell at Target for $50 and I got them on Amazon for only $25 with free shipping!!

Yesterday's run was an interesting run, as it was actually 4 different runs all done consecutively with no breaks in between. First I went out for my normal run and got back to the house after about 4.5 miles. Then (after listening to Phedippidations episode 188 talk all about running with dogs), I felt like taking one of my dogs out for a short 1/2 mile run. Well, she was running so good and fast that the 0.5 mile run turned into a 1.1 mile run. Upon returning home with her, I realized my other two dogs were extremely JEALOUS. So I took each of them out on separate runs (not as long - because they do not run as well as the other) totaling my 3 dog runs at 2 miles. So for the day I did a total of 6.53 miles in a time of 64 minutes.

Overall, the run felt good, and I felt great to once again hit the road. The worst part of the run is that now both of my feet obtained blisters on the inside of the foot right at the arch. I am not sure if this is due to the fact of running 6.5 miles after not running for a good 9-10 days , my new custom orthotics rubbing my feet badly, or both. Hopefully it is the first, but we shall see from future runs how my feet feel. Right now they have band-aids on them and feel fine.

Due to my lack of running, I did decide to skip the 5K race this past Saturday as I truly did not feel best prepared to run the race and did not feel like spending $20 on a race I was not prepared for.

I also have spent the past couple days catching up on my running podcasts and was sad to find out that one of my favorites in Trilogy Running appears to be have came to an end. I hope this is not true and they do continue they show as it is great listening to Shawn and Jason as their podcast is different then all of the others out there as they humor is great and they do push the envelope. This just makes their podcast even better! I will not get into the details of their leaving, but hopefully they will return.

So, the month of May ended up being a pretty bad month for me in running as I only totalled 68.3 miles (a good 45 miles less then April) bringing my year to date total up to 447.7 through 5 months. This puts me on pace to finish the year with 1,074 miles and surpassing my goal of 1,000 for 2009. I expect June to be a much better month and to once again get back to how March and April were and pass over 100 miles for the month.

I was going to go on about what I decided that I want to do for my future long term dream goal, but this blog entry is getting a little long so I will leave that for my next entry (which will not take a month to put out like this one did). How is that for suspense - LOL

Til Next Time

Run Around the Lake 12K

2009-05-05T10:29:00.005-04:00

Hello again, oh wonderful runners!

Doctor, Doctor, Road Race, Party. This is how my week ended last week.

On Thursday, I had my check-up with my podiatrist whom confirmed that everything appears to be looking good and that he hopes to see me out on the roads. I think he is a great podiatrist (not that I have a lot of experience with them) and he also is a runner which makes him even better in my mind. He is not ever going to just say "STOP RUNNING" and I love that. In case anyone is in central Florida and wants a podiatrist whom is a runner please go see Dr Goldstein in Ocala, FL. I do not think you will be disappointed.

Friday, I had my check-up with my orthotics guy. He lengthened my orthotics to be fitter my running shoes this way there is no slippage with them and they will be as comfortable as possible. I have yet to run in them as I have still been trying to slowly break them in (and he did not want me to run in them for the first week). I will probably be trying them on a short run or on my treadmill in the next day or so. He did go ahead and make another appointment for me to go back in a few weeks so he can monitor how my wear is on them. He seems to really know what he is doing and is very thorough about it. (He also was recommended to me by Dr Goldstein which makes me like him even more).

Friday evening I went to my friend Grant's house in Clermont as we had our race on Saturday morning. He had a few people over and his wife and him made up some good spaghetti with homemade meatballs and a nice salad to go along with it

Saturday Morning came and we arrived at Waterfront Park at Lake Mineola in Clermont, FL for the race right around 7am. There were 2 races that day both starting at 7:30 (The Run Around the Lake 12K & 5K). This was a smaller event with about 180 running in the 12K and only about 70 or so in the 5K. Of my group of friends, I was running the 12K, and everyone else was running the 5K. They started both races at the same time though so it made it nice for us all waiting for the race to start. The race started pretty much on time, however, we were lined up near the back and did not even know that someone had talked (must have been very quietly) and all of a sudden a gun went off to start the race. About a half mile into the race the 5K and 12K courses split off. The 12K course was one long loop around the entire lake.

I felt pretty good throughout the entire race, except from mile 4 to mile 5 i had a nasty little side stitch but I just kept going and ran through it. There were 5 water stops along the way, and I made sure to take water from each of them as it was getting pretty warm out. I ran consistent throughout the entire race finishing each mile in a range from 8:20-8:50. I was really booking it the last two tenths of a mile and overtook 2 women who were ahead of me for the entire race. According to my timing chip, my official time was 1:03:59 for an average pace of 8:34 per mile for the 7.4 mile race. After the race I was exhausted and drank a good amount of water before going out to Cracker Barrel for breakfast with the rest of the Central Florida 5Klub. As you can see from the pictures I was very tired and worn out after the race, not leaving much of anything out on the course, hence the basketball in the picture that they shot hoops with while waiting for me to finish (while everyone else had a good 30-45 min to relax before their group photo, I had like 2 minutes to recover)

After breakfast, I went back to my friends house and got cleaned up before heading to my parent's house for my youngest son's 1st birthday party. The party was very nice and everyone seemed to have a really good time. Ben got his own little cake and loved getting to eat it and make a mess. We finally got home around 8ish and everyone was exhausted from the long day. (I was told by my wife however, that I am no longer allowed to run a race on my sons' birthdays :) That I need to be there to help her get ready for them)

Overall it was a good day, I ran well and was very pleased with my time and the birthday party seemed to go excellent and everyone there appeared to enjoy themselves.

Next Race - The Ocala Grace Race 5K - May 30th - anyone who wants to come out and run with the 5Klub is welcome!

Til Next Time

It's Been a While

2009-04-21T12:03:00.002-04:00

Hello All You Runners Out There (Non Runners are welcome too)

So, It has been a while since I last updated you all. Any of you following me on Twitter you may have been able to keep a little more current on me, but for the rest of you, I will try and update you now.

So, I finally made it in for my fitting for my semi rigid orthotics. As soon as I started taking my shoes off the man says "Man, you have some flat feet" LOL. The casting process was interesting. I was expecting to have to stand in something to make a mold of my feet, but he did not do this. The casting was actually made by using some fiberglass casting tape. I never knew that there was such a thing (but then again, I've never broke any bone and never needed a cast).

I get to go back on Friday the 24th to pick up my orthotics and hopefully they will be great for my feet and help to end any foot or ankle pains I may have been getting.

My training has been going pretty decent lately. I have been logging close to 30 miles a week and my heart rate has even been lower when running the same routes at the same pace as I did in the past.

In two weeks (May 2nd - my son's 1 year birthday) I will be running in the Cleremont Run Around the Lake 12K. Once that run is over I will be heading back home for Ben's 1st birthday party. This should be a fun, busy day. (I bet I'll sleep good that night).

Well, that will end this short update and I will let you all know how my orthotics are doing once I receive them. Again, if for some reason you would like more current update please feel free to follow me on Twitter. My Twitter ID is crazyrunner and you can follow me at this link. Click Here to Follow me

Til Next Time

Bad Feet, Good Run ?

2009-04-04T19:29:00.006-04:00

Hellllllllooooooooooooo Nurse! (Animaniacs flashback there)

So..... I had my doctors appointment with the podiatrist this week. The doc said that i have EXTREMELY flat feet, and said that my foot is what they call a "Z Foot". This basically means that my foot goes one way but my toes turn off at an angle (I guess I'm a weirdo). He also said that I could possibly be in early stages of Posterior Tibial Tendinitis, so he wants to see me again in a month. Before leaving he did write me a prescription for some Semi Rigid Custom Orthotics and said that they would benefit me GREATLY. The earliest appointment I was able to set was for Monday, March 13th. He said if I am having any problems in the meantime to continue with my goof friends Advil and Ice. He did say I could go pick up a pair of regular orthotics from a store like Foot Locker or something but they honestly will not do much of anything for me as they are made for people with "normal feet" and that I do NOT have "normal feet". (Didn't we already know that nothing about me was normal?) So, hopefully I should end up receiving my orthotics somewhere around the 20th and that can help me feel better and prevent the problem from getting worse.

Despite the pain, I had a 5K race race scheduled for Saturday (today). With the pain I had been feeling in my feet all week and any regular training runs I had this week resulting in sub par times, I was not expecting the greatest of results.

So, my running group, the 5Klub had a new member join today as my mom completed her first ever 5K event, the Fruitland Park Day 5K.

This was a smaller event that did not have online registartion, so we all opted to register on race day instead of mailing it in. The registration process was slow and did not feel the most organized (probably not the best start to my moms first ever race). But eventually we all were registed and were ready for the race to begin.

At 8am the gun went off and the field of only 125 was starting. Again, I was expecting to run the race in a time of somewhere around 26-27 minutes due to my injury problem. As it turned out though, my foot felt good the entire race and I crossed the finish line in a time of 23:12, setting a new P.R. and finishing in 15th place!!!

After finishing, I took a small cup of water and then turned around to go back onto the course and meet up with my mom and finish the race with her. When I got up to her, she had roughly 1 mile left to go. We crossed the finishline together, as my mom finished her first ever race in a time of 51:17 (I think that was her time).

Counting my mom, 4 members of the 5Klub ran in this race and 3 of us set PRs (the 4th member was only 63 seconds off of his PR). The other cool thing was I got 2nd in my age group and got a silver medal, while 2 of the other members received gold and bronze medals. With this rarity happening for us, we posed for an "Olympic Podium" picture and were then off to Bob Evans for a nice big traditional post race breakfast for all of us.

It is nice to know that one can set a PR in the same week as having foot problems and bad training. I guess this was a pretty good day

Us in our Olympic Medal Podium Picture (Steven-Gold, Me-Silver, Grant-Bronze)

Olympic Podium picture with me and Grant giving tribute to the 1968 Black Power Salute Protest

Me and my mom after the completion of the Fruitland Park Day 5K

It's the Best Month Ever

2009-04-01T08:54:00.003-04:00

Hello all my faithful readers (all 3 of you)

Well............... another month has come to an end, and the month of March was a good month for me. Yes the month of March was my most productive month of running yet to date. I finished March with 117.7 miles which is 25.5 more miles then I ran in February! This just gets me singing "The Best Day Ever" from Spongebob Squarepants but replacing Day with Month (yeah, I know I'm a dork, but hey, I have a nearly 4 year old son that loves to watch "Bob Bob" as he says.

Well not a lot has been going on for me since my trip to Cincinnati (hence the amount of time since my last blog post). I have just been trying to stay consistent. I try each week to log right around 30 miles, keep up with my "family" of runners with their blogs and podcasts, and do not forget keep up with my real family also.

I do have a 5K race scheduled for this coming Saturday as I will be running in the Fruitland Park Days 5K. This will be a memorable race for me because it will be the first EVER 5K that my mother will do! I am happy to see that she is getting out there (now if only I can get my dear wife to join me out there, life would be super stellar!) and I will do what I can to make this a successful event for her. I plan on circling back to get her and finish with her after I complete the race.

My feet and ankles have been bothering me lately and I am not sure what it is. I did recently get a new pair of Asics 2130 shoes, but that already is the type of shoe that I had been wearing so I don't see how it could be this. The right foot is hurting the most right around the arch area (what little I have - I have pretty flat feet) and it also hurts above the ankle bone. Actually both feet have been bad, but my right foot is the worst. Normally, when I am out on a run now, my feet are killing me for like the first 15-20 minutes, then after that there appears to be no pain (or it just feels that way cause it has died down so much). I also am not sure why the pain would go away like this once my run is getting established. If anyone has any thoughts on this please let me know. It is not a horrible pain, as it is tolerable, but to be safe, I have an appointment with a podiatrist this afternoon to try and find out what exactly the problem is, and hopefully take care of it before it gets even worse.

I also am excited that this weekend brings the beginning of the MLB season as I am ready to watch my Chicago White Sox play and defend their title as AL Central Champions! Sadly, the Gators basketball season came to and end with a loss in the Elite 8 of the NIT Tournament, but at least Billy Donovan said he is staying at Florida as he turned down Kentucky once again. Also, our best player in Nick Calathes stated that he is entering the NBA Draft, but he is not hiring an agent. Hopefully he will realize he needs a little more work before the NBA and come back for 1 more year. The basketball season ended and the very next day was the first day of Spring Football for the Florida Gators as they start to prepare for their season as they try to go to Pasadena and REPEAT as National Champions!!

Well.......that is enough of me babbling for now.

One last thing, anyone else out there who is into running podcasts please go on over to the Buckeye Outdoors website and join the There Can Be Only One challenge to support your favorite running podcast. This is a challenge where each month they will eliminate podcasts with the least amount of miles logged for them until eventually there is only 1 ULTIMATE podcast left standing. I currently am on the team of 4 Feet Running under my Buckeye account of itisshaggy. Hope to see you all there!

Various Photos From Cincinnati

2009-03-18T20:52:00.010-04:00

Where I went each night After a Long Day

The real reason for the trip (Work)

Practice field for the Cincinnati Bengals

Paul Brown Stadium (home of the Cincinnati Bengals)

Leaving Ohio and Entering Kentucky on a run

Same Run, leaving Kentucky and coming back to Ohio

Paul Brown Stadium from across the Ohio River

Great American Ballpark and US Bank Arena across the river

more of Great American Ballpark (hey, I love baseball and it's my companies park)

across the river and under a bridge

view at night of Fountain Square

picture taken from the "Purple People Bridge"

looking over the river at Kentucky

look at Frank Robinson swing that bat

Joe Nuxhall sure was an icon in Cincinnati

another view of Mr Robinson

Here's the pitch................

my companies Stadium

view from across the street

Side of my hotel (The Cincinnatian Hotel - built in 1882)

Cincinnati Trip/ The Winter Park Road Race

2009-03-15T20:49:00.003-04:00

Greetings Fellow Runners

So my week of change has came to an end. Monday morning started out with Crystal driving me to the Orlando Airport for my flight to Cincinnati. I arrived into the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport at around 1:30 where I caught my shuttle to the Cincinnatian Hotel in downtown Cincinnati. After getting checked in, I decided I would go out for a run as there was nothing planned with work for the day and the day was still early. First, I learned that it is not as easy to get signal on my Forerunner 305 the first time in Cincinnati compared to Ocala. I ventured out in an exploring mode with my camera in my pocket. First I decided to head over to Great American Ballpark(the home of the Cincinnati Reds). I found this to be a very nice stadium with some nice statues out front of some former Reds Greats. I then continued my run down to the "Purple People Bridge" which is a pedestrian only bridge that crosses over the Ohio River and into Newport, Kentucky. After going about 1.5-2.0 miles I finished crossing the bridge and arrived at Newport on the Levee. At this point I decided to take a break from my run and walk around here for a little while. I walked around here for a while then decided to catch a movie (Gran Torino - which was VERY good) before heading back towards the hotel. I ended my run at right around 6 miles. I then cleaned up and went for a burger and a beer at a local hole in the wall type Sports Bar named Rockin' Robin's which was a very good place where one can feel very comfortable.

Tuesday, I had my training class go until 5-5:30 and the I ended up going out for another run that went from Cincinnati, over the Ohio River into Newport, KY, over a bridge crossing the Vickings River into Covington, KY then a 3rd bridge coming back over the Ohio River before coming back into Cincinnati running by Paul Brown Stadium (home of the Cincinnati Bengals). On my way back towards my hotel I ended passing THOUSANDS of people walking to US Bank Arena. I ended up asking a cop that was directing traffic what was going on, and found out it was a Elton John and Billy Joel concert on their Face 2 Face tour.

Wednesday, after getting out of training a group of 10 of us went out to Nicholson's which is a great Irish/Scottish restaurant/pub. This place was awesome, the food was SUPERB!, and has a beer list that was like 10 pages long. I ended up drinking a English Pale Ale that I had never had before and it was also great (Old Speckled Hen). We then went to an ice cream place where I had some excellent Black Raspberry Chip Ice Cream. This ended up being a day full of great food and beer - all of which unfortunately I do not think I can find any of in central Florida.

Thursday, was Graduation day from my training class. Once graduation was over a group of like 10-15 of us went over to Cadillac Ranch (a local Sports Bar with a southern feel) and had some drinks. We all had a blast and a good handful of us ended up riding the mechanical bull here which I never imagined could have been so much fun!

Friday, we still had a 1/2 day of training to go to before I left to the airport to head back to Orlando. Grant picked me up from the airport, went to Olive Garden, then went back to his place as we had our 10k race in the morning.

Saturday - RACE DAY - The Winter Park Road Race - We arrived in Winter Park right around 7am for a 7:30 race start. We got our bib numbers and Chip Timers on and then settled into the field of nearly 2,000 runners. The race ended up going pretty good and I felt really good throughout. I will say that I used up some extra energy trying to maneuver through the large field of runners (largest field I have ever had in a race yet). I ended up sprinting nearly the last 0.2 miles and finished the 10K race in a time of 53:17 for a pace of 8:34 per mile. I finished in 563rd out of overall 1,911 finishers (top 29%), 392nd out of 908 male finishers (top 43%), and 50th out of 104 in my 25-29 age group (top 48%)

I will post some pictures of the trip in the next day or day as I have not had a chance to upload the photos yet.

Til Next Time

The Evil Peacocks!

2009-03-03T10:47:00.006-05:00

Greeting Fellow Runners

Well, another month has come to and end. I ended up having my best month ever as far as total mileage ran goes. I finished the month of February with a total of 92.2 miles and honestly felt like I could have ran even more. I felt great throughtout the entire month and suffored no real injuries other then my left knee hurting a little from time to time. The month of February also included my FIRST EVER half marathon as I completed the Ocala Half Marathon in 2:14:43.

I now look forward to future PRs and record months. I will have numerous 5Ks that I plan to run thorughout this year, plus so far I know I have a 10K that I am running on March 14 (Winter Park Road Race), the Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon on October 3, and my FIRST EVER full marathon on January 10, 2010 - Man, am I anxiously awaiting that day.

To start the month of March, I went out for a 8 mile run. I decided to switch up my route for a little variety and turned down some roads that I had never been on before (by foot NOR by car). I ended up turning down some old abandoned looking dirt road that was very peaceful. However, after getting about a half mile down theis road I look ahead and what do my wandering eyes see? 3 Peacocks standing in the middle of the road! (I later found out they were peahens as they were females - thank you google) These birds were just staring at me as I approached with caution, and man did they look EVIL. I have very limited knowledge on peacocks and did not know if they were mean, agressive animals or not. So I proceeded with caution and VERY SLOWLY passed them and kept going. They did come towards me a little bit, but I did not give them a chance to get any closer then necessary. Apparently this road ended about a quarter mile later and I had to turn around and come back by them again. They were still there and I repeated doing the same thing as before. Ended up being a nice little comfortable run of 8.11 miles in 1:16:32 for a pace of about 9:25 per mile. I also did receive my book in the mail yesterday (Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide by Hal Higdon) I read the introduction last nice and found what little I have read so far to be good. Now let's just hope the rest of the book is as good or better.

Next week, I will not be home as work will take me to Cincinnati for the week, then I come back and have my 10k on Saturday immediatly after getting back in Florida. I am looking forward to the trip as I think it should be a fun, interesting experiance (Sorry Crystal for leaving you alone with the circus). I plan on doing some nice runs while there, and for the first time ever I should be able to go for ONE run in TWO states as I cross the border into Kentucky on a run.

ALSO - I just wanted to let everyone know that I have decided to join TEAM WORLD VISION. If anyone is interested in helping me raise money, please visit my fundraising page at
http://www.firstgiving.com/thecrazyrunner Any donation would be greatly appreciated as this is a great way to help children around the world.

Well, that will bring today's rambling to an end.

Til Next Time

Another week down.............

2009-02-22T18:01:00.008-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners (I really do owe a thanks to Steve Runner of Phedippidations a big thanks for the opening)

So, another week of February has went by and my consistency for the month continues. I finished the week with a total mileage of 23.64. Now, my mileage for each week in February is: 23.65, 23.51, and 23.64. This brings my total for the month to 70.8 with 6 days left in the month. Also, my year to date total is now at 127.9 as I am on my way towards my goal of running 1,000 miles in 2009.

I also ordered a new book today, which will be my first ever running book and I think my first ever non fiction book (other than a college textbook). I ordered the 3rd edition of Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide by Hal Higdon. I am hoping this book will help prepare me for my first full marathon in January 2010 at the Disney Marathon. This also should help, because I was already planning on using one of Hal Higdon's marathon training plans prior to ordering this book. If anyone else has any advise for me on this ventured, I would love to hear it.

In my podcast listening I have finally caught up. I have now listened to EVERY episode of Phedippidations, 4 Feet Running, Running To Disney, and The Runners Round Table. Now it is on to both Trilogy Running and Running From The Reaper. Unfortunately, Running From The Reaper only goes back as far as episode 79 on iTunes. So if anyone knows where one could obtain episodes 1-78, please advise.

Well hopefully I will end the month on a positive note, and I SHOULD end the month with my highest running total yet.

Til Next Time

Short Update

2009-02-15T10:53:00.003-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners

Well February is half gone now, and my running has been pretty decent and very consistent so far.

So far for the month I am at 47.2 miles with 8 runs. Each of the 2 weeks have been 1) 23.65 miles and 2) 23.51 miles. This puts me on pace for 94 miles for the month, which would be the most I have ever ran in a month. So far for the year I am at 104.3 miles, which is behind on my goal of 1,000 for the year - BUT I WILL CATCH UP!!

I would like to give to shout out and thanks to Nik and Dan over at 4 Feet Running. On their recent episode of their podcast (Episode 54) they read from my Ocala Half Marathon race report and put a link to my blog in their show notes at www.4feetrunning.blogspot.com. In case you are unfamiliar with Nik and Dan or 4 Feet Running, they are a husband and wife who produce their own running podcast. Their show is great show. The 2 of them are hilarious and there show is very entertaining while also adding insight into the sport of running. If you have not already, I highly recommend that you head over to http://4feetrunning.blogspot.com/ and check out the blog and podcast OR go to iTunes and subscribe to their podcast there - You will not be disappointed!

Well after recently talking to my friends in Tennessee and finding out that they are both planning on running their first ever full marathon in January at the Disney Marathon, I have decided that I too will join them and also attempt to run my first ever full marathon.

If anyone has any training tips or advice for me on my first ever marathon please do not hesitate to let me know.

Well all, that will do it for this entry as I will keep you updated on future training and events.

Til Next Time

Ocala Half Marathon - "You Can't Take Away My Dignity"

2009-02-03T18:39:00.002-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners

So, I ran my FIRST EVER half marathon on Sunday morning.

On Saturday afternoon, me and the family went up to the Ocala Hilton and picked up my packet with my bib and timing chip. While there, we checked out the SMALL expo that was set up. There really was not a lot to it. I did however pick up another pack of Sport Beans and purchased a pair of Lock Laces. I will say these are nice as now I no longer need to worry about my laces comming undone (which was a major issue with my Asics 2130's - I love these shoes but the laces are horrible!)

I started my morning on Sunday waking up around 5 and with getting ready and driving there, I arrived to the race around 6:30am. I met Grant there who was registered for the 5K that morning. It was cold as could be there (for FL standards anways) as it was only 30 degrees! The Full Marathon was to start at 7, the half at 7:15, and the 5K at 7:30. This is a small town still as there were like 80 people running the full, 225 running the half, and something like 150 or so running the 5K.

The race started pretty much right on time and I was off and running. I finished mile 1 in 8:49, which was to fast of a pace. At about 1.8 miles in (according to my Garmin) I was passing a lady who was listening to her iPod and singing along to it. Actually, it was more like she was belting it out then singing it - it must be nice to have that kind of lung capacity! As i got up to her she was singing Whitney as I heard her singing "I believe the children are the future........" I kept on going and tried to not laugh as I did not want to use extra energy. After having passed her and was a good tenth of a mile beyond her I could STILL HEAR HER singing "....YOU CAN'T TAKE AWAY MY DIGNITY!" I reached the 5K mark in about 28 minutes and was feeling great! I was feeling great still, even though the ENTIRE 4th mile was completely UPHILL! Despite the hill, I kept going at a steady pace and reached the 10k mark in around 57 minutes. At this point I had to go to the bathroom. I will leave out any details for your benefit, and just state that going to the bathroom when you are cold is not a very pleasent thing.

About 8 miles in or so, my stomach started feeling "not so good" Finally around the 10 mile mark, I stopped and attempted to go to the bathroom and "remove" the problem. However I did not want to sit long and nothing felt like it was moving. So, I decided to forget about it and keep going and just deal with the unpleasent feeling. This however was the point where my run went downhill. From this point on I completed every remaining mile in a good 11 minutes or worse. At around the 11.5 mile mark I added a pain in my right hip to my already ailing stomach. I ended up reaching the 12 mile mark pretty much right at 2 hours, which was my goal upon starting the race. This was demoralizing as I had done better than this in preparation. I ended up finishing my 13.1 mile course in a time of 2:14:43 and finished in 173rd out of 225 runners. Not at all as good as I wanted to do, but I could not complain as it was my first ever half marathon, it was not to far off of the goal I had set for myself of somewhere between 2:00 and 2:10, and all the problems that I encountered on the way.

I will say that this was a gorgeous course, especially for anyone not familliar with the area. The course was filled with nice hills and horse farm after horse farm where there were even horses out galloping in the farms. I will say it was a great feeling finishing the race and getting presented with my finishers medal. I will definitely do this run again, and hopefully I can get Grant to stick to his guns and run it with me next year like he said he might do.

So to any runners out there that want to compete in a small, yet very well organized course, with super volunteers (they were even giving out Twizzlers!), and a beautiful surroundings, I recommend you try out the Ocala Marathon or Half Marathon.

Til Next Time

Thank God For My Garmin!

2009-01-28T09:00:00.003-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners

Well last night I went out for my final long run before my half marathon. I ended up running 11.26 miles in 1:59:53 (10:38 pace/mile). I went at not the greatest speed, but there is some reason for this.

I went out for my normal long run, while Crystal took the kids to the park by our house. Everything was going good on the run, and I felt as though I was off to an excellent start. A little over 3 miles in I was approaching the park that the family was at, and what do ya know, I see my car pulling out of the park and on their way home (even though she didn't see me coming in the opposite direction).

I then went on with my run up to the animal shelter and circle around there and started to head home. At this point it was starting to get dark and this is where I realized that I had forgotten my running light. A little bit more into my run, I decided to change things up a little bit and turn onto a road that I do not normally run on. As it turns out, this may normally not be a bad idea, but it is when it is pitch black out and I forgot my light. I thought I was doing good going around this little circle and would then turn onto the road that brought me right back to my normal path. As it turns out, I AM BLIND! LOL Somehow I passed by the turn that I wanted to make, ran the entire circle AND some and that is when I thought I was at the right spot in the circle to turn (actually I was just 1 road from where I got onto it at) This road led me a little off coarse (which I was not aware of at the time). A little bit on this road and I knew there was a problem as I am not normally on this road for this long. I now was lost, in the dark on foot and had already completed a good 8 miles of running. After running slowly from road to road trying to read the road signs in the dark (which does do much good when every single road was named Juniper Rd, Juniper Dr, Juniper Loop, etc) not sure of which road I was to turn down, I knew this could end up bad. Then, it hit me my Garmin Forerunner 305 (recently purchased) has a map feature on it that shows where I have ran. I was able to use this feature to eventually lead me back to the normal path and give me a good sense of relief. Of course at this point I was already exhausted and still was about 2 miles or so away from my house (apparently being lost uses up a LOT more energy then a normal run)

I eventually made my way back home and completed the course. I do now have a nice blister on my right foot and just hope to death that it does not bother me in my half marathon and my pursuit of breaking 2 hours.

Moral of the story DO NOT forget your light when running in the dark (especially in the shores)

Final Run Stats

Distance - 11.26 miles
Time - 1:59:53
Avg Heart Rate - 157 BPM
Max Heart Rate - 174 BPM
Calories Burned - 1,246
Avg Pace Per Mile - 10:38
Temperature during run - 70.7 - 71.6
Elevation Gained - 2,142 Ft

Daytona 5K

2009-01-26T12:14:00.002-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners

Well.................I completed the Daytona 5K this Saturday and was OK with the results. I finished the race in 128th out of 533 runners in a time of 24:38 which equals out to a pace of 7:56 per mile. I've done better and worse as I think this was my 5th best time of the 14 runs I have done. Last year I finished this same race in 27:11 so that is like a 2:27 improvement.

I had went out to Grant's basketball games on the night before. Those games didn't end til pretty late and then we hit Steak N Sheak afterwards. (Nothing like eating Steak N Shake like 7 hours before a 5K race - LOL). Anyways, by the time we got back to his house and got to sleep it was right around 1am. Might I remind everyone that we had to be up by 4am to get ready and drive to Daytona. (Nothing like 3 hours sleep the night before race day!) We had to leave a little early because Grant missed the registration deadline for the run and had to register at the speedway itself. It was pretty cold waiting for the race to start (by Florida standards that is) so we were both in running pants instead of shorts. At just around 7am the National Anthem was sung and then it was time for the starting gun!

The first mile of this race takes place primarly in the pit area of the speedway. At the 1 mile mark I was in at a time of 7:53 and decided to skip the water station. We were now onto the main track of the speedway where everyone (for obvious reasons) runs at the base of the track instead of on the huge banks of the speedway which are 18 degrees on front stretch, 31 degrees on the turns and 3 degrees on the back stretch. I finished mile 2 in 7:57 bringing my 2 mile time to 15:50. The third mile was more of the same as I finished it in 7:56. Which is a 23:26 total time. I then sped up for the final 0.1 miles and finished in a total time of 24:38.

Funniest part of the race - bugging Grant because he got beat by an 80 year old woman!! (even though to be honest that woman was AWESOME. I hope when I am 80 I can run like she can. She completed the 5K in a little over 30 minutes)

Best achievement of race - Kept good steady pace throught the entire race. Most consistent all 3 of my miles have EVER been. ALSO, I was glad to pass the guy who was directly in front of me and in my tracks for the entire race in the last tenth of a mile.

Worst part of the race - The Tram ride from the parking area to the starting point of the race. MAN was this cold that wind was horrible hitting you in a tram going down Dayton International Speedway!!

Overall, the race was a good experiance yet again. I now prepare as I have my half marathon this comming Sunday.

Hopefully after that run I can give just as happy of a race report.

Til next time

Long time no blog (again)

2009-01-18T18:22:00.003-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners

Long time no talk to! I have just not been able to blog lately so I apologize if for any long delays in between blogs.

I have had a lot of distractions keeping me from blogging lately between tons of construction repairs going on with our roof at work and a week of jury duty serving on a murder trial just to name a couple of them

All of this should be over now and hopefully I can start to get back to a normal blog.

I just ordered my new gadget yesterday that I am so anxiously awaiting the arrival of. I finally will be getting my Garmin Forerunner 305!!!!! I am so excited - It should arrive on Wednesday! This will get me it in time before both my Daytona 5K this upcomming Saturday and my Ocala Half Marathon just 8 days after the Daytona race!

I have still been getting in SOME running lately but not nearly the amount that I have wanted to get in. So far for the month of January I am at a total of 30.0 miles. My goal for the year is 1,000 miles which equates to 83.33 miles per month or about 2.7 miles per day. So through 18 days I SHOULD be at 48.38 miles to be on pace for my goal (So as of right now I am currently 18.38 Miles behind pace). I plan on getting a long run in tomorrow though and that should help me catch up a little bit.

So, at least I am consistent ( I am behind in my running AND my blogging). But, hopefully my new toy will get me going a good amount more with some new excitement to add to my runs and some new things to blog about as I have a busy couple of weeks coming up as far as my running schedule goes.

Til Next time

Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap

2008-12-12T08:35:00.002-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners

I went out on my weekly long run last night to cover a distance of 13.1 miles (or a half marathon). The run started out great and I was feeling super. At around 2 miles in it did start a light sprinkle and was getting very large gusts of wind comming right at me (nothing like hard winds pushing rain onto your face making it hard to even look upward) Luckily, the rain and wind gusts only lasted about a mile or so. After that I was feeling great, and my times at each mile were looking equally as good. I then ran by Hercules fencing on Maricamp. Most people know this place by there interesting quotes on their sign out front. Last night there were two more that were odd and funny. The first one (which was the title of this blog in case the title had anyone confused) was "Fat people are harder to kipnap" and the second one was "Many husband go broke from the money their wives save on sales". These were some interesting quotes that both gave me a little bit of a needed chuckle about 5-6 miles into my run.

At about 7 miles in, things started to get a little worse. My stomach really started to hurt and I needed to use the restroom. After about another mile, I finally ran upon a gas station or my my mind thought about it at this point, "a life saver". Ten minutes later, I was back on the road and was feeling good again.

About a half a mile later, I was running on the shoulder of the road. Apparently, there was a part of the shoulder that was uneven but it was dark outside and I could not tell. My feet got tripped up on this, I twisted my ankle, and then BOTH of my feet flew up about 90 degrees and my entire body was airborne at about waist high. My body fell quickly as I landed directly in the road right on my hand, hip, and shoulder. Man was I hurting here!! After shaking this off for about 30-60 seconds, I knew I had to finish my run even though I still had a good 4-5 miles left to run. I obviously was not running as fast as I was prior to my fall, but all felt OK (or maybe I was just telling myself this as my ankle and hip were both hurting like hell. I kept going though and was gonna finish this thing (not that I had much choice as I forgot my cell phone at home). At around the 12 mile mark I was going into the home stretch and was ready to finish this thing off. I turned a corner, and in the dark I could not see what was in front of me. To my suprise, I ran right through the middle of a huge puddle that was at least a good 6 inches deep. Nothing like running with soaking wet shoes and socks for the last mile of a not so pleasent run! Eventually, I finally got home and my adventure was over. I finished my 13.1 miles in a time of 2:07:18. Not to shabby of a time I felt for having everything happen that did to me. I hope I am well on my way of reaching my 1:59:59 goal I have set for myself at the Ocala Half Marathon on February 1st.

Run Stats

Distance - 13.1 Miles
Time - 2:07:18
Avg. Pace - 9:43 Min/Mile
Speed - 6.17 MPH
Cal Burned - 1,500

Hope you enjoyed the adventure

Til Next Time

Attack of the Dogs

2008-12-10T08:45:00.003-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners

Well, yesterday was going to be my LSD run day. Howvwer, when getting ready to go out, I could not find any of my running shorts that had pockets (I need pockets during long runs for my Sport Beans and my cell phone). So, without them I decided to go out on a shorter run instead and move back my long run to Wednesday or Thursday.

My run yesterday was a course I have done numerous times and is what I basicly call my "dump run" as I do an out and back course that simply goes from my house out to the dump, and back home totaling 7 miles.

The first 4 miles was going great. Had perfect weather, was super relaxed, and listening to Phedippidations episode #164. However at around the 4 mile mark, I was encountered by a large dog (somewhere around 80 lbs or so). This dog was NOT happy to see me. He came running towards me and was barking up a storm. Once he got a little closer to me, he came to a stop and started growling at me. I obviously had came to a stop at this point. I realized that my blinking safety light did not seem to be helping me get rid of this dog so I turned it off. I started walking VERY slowly to get away from the dog and luckily after about 2-3 minutes I heard someone open their house door and yell at the dog, and he quickly turned and ran back to the house. Now that my heart rate was through the roof, I continued my run, and turned my light back on. With my mind going crazy from the encounter with the dog, I somehow missed a road that I needed to turn on to. Wanting to keep my distance at 7 miles with an accurate time though, I decided to stop my clock and walk back to the road and equally that many steps down the next road (was about 190 steps each way)

The run was finally getting to an end when I ran upon ANOTHER dog. This one was actually in my own neighborhood, but I did not recognize him. He was right at the corner of where the road curves and was barking at me from the other side of the street while giving me the stare down. I decided once again to turn my light off, and I cut through the yard on the corner and slowly made my way past him before sprinting it in home to finish my run.

My finishing stats were:

Distance - 7.05 Miles
Time - 59:26
Avg Pace - 8:25 Min/Miles
speed - 7.12 MPH
Cal Burned - 807

Well hopefully next run my heart can relax a little more and I can run fog free.

Til Next Time

31st Annual Reindeer Run

2008-12-08T09:53:00.004-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners

I ran in Ocala's 31st annual Reindeer Run on Saturday evening, and to put it nicely, I did HORRIBLE. I finished in a time of 25:55 (PATHETIC). Sadly though, I did finish in 3rd place in my age group (man my age group must have been bad this year) I finished in 3rd in the Male 25-29 year old group out of 8 runners, 138th out of 225 males, and 173rd overall out of 413 runners

My mind was just not in the race as it was totally on the SEC Championship Game in which the Gators beat the Tide and secured a spot in the BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. I also got a VERY VERY BAD side stitch at about the 2 mile mark and it went horrible from there. I guess at this point I have better luck on longer runs.

We did have a lot of phone at the race though as were being stupid and doing group pictures of us all.

Oh well, I shall do better on the next race on January 24th as I run the Daytona 5K directly on the Daytona International Speedway.

Til Next Time.

Long Time no Blog!

2008-12-03T10:36:00.002-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners!

Long time no blog!

Sorry for the delay since my last blog. I have just not gotten around to it lately.
I also want to get my running back up. Lately, all that I have been running was my one weekly long run.

My November totals ended up being
Total Runs - 8 (that is pitiful)
Total Distance - 71.4 miles
Avg. Speed - 6.3 MPH
Avg. Mile Pace - 9:33 (Remember these were mostly all long runs only)
Cal. Burned - 8,171

Well I did get out for my long run yesterday to get December started out.
Yesterday's Run

Distance - 11.18 miles
Time - 1:51:10
Pace - 9:56 min/mile
Speed - 6.03 MPH
Cal Burned - 1280

Yesterdays run was a nice run. At the begining of the run I was COLD!!! But after going about 1.5-2 miles my body was plenty warm enough and felt great the rest of the entire run. I will emphasize that Jelly Belly Sport Beans sure do wonders to get me through these long runs!

I now am getting ready for my big weekend. This weekend (Saturday) includes the 31st annual Ocala Reindeer Run which is ran down Silver Springs Blvd on the path of the Ocala Christmas Parade and takes place right before it starts. This is a 5K run that is great with awesome fan interaction as the ENTIRE course is lined with tons of spectators. The other nice thing about this run, is that it is so different then every other 5K because 1) it has like no turns. It is pretty much run 1.55 miles out, turnaround and come back. and 2) Unlike every other race, this one starts at 5PM so I do not have to wake up at the crack of dawn for it.

How ironic is it though that even though I love an evening race, this is the 1 time that I wish it was a morning run as it takes place at the same time as the SEC Championship game between my beloved Florida Gators and the Alabama Crimson Tide. This is a HUGE game as it not only will determine the SEC Champion, but also, odds are very good that the winner will be playing on Jan 8 in Miami, FL in the NATIONAL TITLE GAME !!!! So unfortunatly I will miss a good amount of this game (Even though i am TIVOing it)

All righty, well I better wrap this thing up now as I am at work

Til Next Time (which hopefully is not as long as the last time I said that)

Fridays (short) Run

2008-11-10T11:07:00.003-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners!

Friday tends to be my shorter run day as I get out of work earlier then norm, so I come home and do a "short" run before I go pick up Aaron from daycare.

Run Stats

Distance - 4.52 Miles
Time - 38:08
Pace - 8:26 Min/Mile
Cal Burned - 517

WEEKLY TOTAL - 31.04 Miles
MONTHLY TOTALS - 31.04 MILES

Again, as I said, Friday tends to be my short run day based on time available to run.
Not much else to say on this days boring post other then as always it was a nice enjoyable run with great weather. I ended my Run getting ready for the Gator game on Saturday vs Vanderbilt where they could clinch the SEC East title and hope to move up in the BCS.

(As it turns out, not only did UF win 42-14 and win the SEC East, but Penn St got beat also. This moved UF to #4 in the latest BCS and got rid of another undefeated to help improve their odds of making the title game in Miami this year!)

Here is the run details

Til Next Time

Thursday Night

2008-11-07T09:36:00.003-05:00

Thursday Night Run Stats

Distance - 7.03 Miles
Time - 1:00:43
Pace - 8:38 Min/Mile
Cal Burned - 805

Greetings Fellow Runners!

Well last night I went ahead and ran the identical course to what I ran on Wednesday night. I will say I was pretty consistent. For a seven mile run last nights run was 15 seconds faster then the night befores run.

Again this was a very nice and relaxing run for me and the weather has been super for me lately. I am anxiously getting ready for my first ever half on February 1.

My iPod was tuned to Phedippidations episode 25 "Revolutions and Resolutions" from 1/1/2006.

Maybe one day I can get some fellow members of my Central Florida 5Klub to slowly increase their distances and they can sometime go out for a longer run with me.

During my run, I was thinking about how at work everybody was saying how you can not "relax" when at work. I feel that I am about the only one there whom does not agree with this. I do not get overly stressed (I barely get stressed at all except for when I am watching my beloved Gators play) I know they all think I am crazy, but I think they too could have a little less stress in their day if they would just take up running. Running more then anything seems to both relax the mind and energize the body. Well that is enough philosophy from me for the day

Til Next Time

Wednesday Run

2008-11-06T13:38:00.003-05:00

Greetings Fellow Runners!

Here are my Daily Run stats

Distance - 7.03 Miles
Time - 1:00:58
Pace - 8:40 Min/Mile
Cal Burned - 805

Well I went out for a 7 mile run last night. It was a simple out and back course that went from my house out towards the dump and back.

On this run I listened to Phedippidations episode 22 "Gadgets & Gizmos".

I am still learning that I am really enjoying these night runs as they are very peaceful, especially when you combine it with this beautiful weather that we have been having. The worst part about this run was the smell. The smell from the dump was a lot worse then normal. I guess this must be due to the weather getting colder or something, Who knows. Really, all my mind was thinking about on this run was how great it felt to be out there, and how I really do need to start increasing my mileage to about 25 miles per week (at least). Also, I did spend some time thinking at least Obama said 1 thing that I liked during his ENTIRE campaign, and this was said the night before the election during his interview at halftime of Monday Night Football. He couldn't have been more right then when he said that it was time that college football had a playoff system. If he could just get this one thing to pass and not ruin us on everything else, I just might be OK with his presidency. Unfortunately, I do not think even the president can get a playoff started in college football.

Til next time

(here as I will end each post is the details of my run)

My Day before the election LONG Run

2008-11-04T17:53:00.000-05:00

Happy election day everyone!

Just giving everyone (or nobody) a quick update on my Long Run last night.

Monday for me is labeled as "Monday Funday Runday" as this the the day of the week that I do my long run each and every week.

Last night I went out for my Weekly Long Run at about 5:30pm. I ended up completing my longest run to date, at a distance of 12.46 miles. I was also pretty happy with my time considering I was not trying for any special time just to complete it and build up my stamina for my FIRST EVER half marathon on February 1st. (my goal for the half is to break 2 hours) I ended up with a time of 2 hours 2 minutes and 38 seconds (a 9:50 pace). Calculating that pace out over the entire 13.1 would be a time of 2 hours 8 minutes and 49 seconds. Which is only about 9 minutes short of my goal time.

This was an interesting run for me as the time has just changed so the vast majority of my run was in the dark while trying to avoid cars. I will say the night time provided a very peaceful backdrop to my run while listening to my iPod. I always enjoy my long runs listening to the podcast Phedippidations. This is a wonderful little podcast by Steve Runner that he does where he gives his "thoughts, opinions, observations, and rambling diatribes during distance long runs". On this run, I listened to episode #159 "Responsible Shoes". Also I spent some time on this run thinking about the election on Tuesday and of course on how things are looking like they might shape out greatly for my beloved Florida Gators football team which is now up to #5 in the latest BCS standings released this week.

Tonight I will be taking off from running as my day of rest after my long run. Instead I will relax at home and keep up with the election results and hope things work out like I want them to.

Here is the detail of my Monday Run straight from my training log at http://www.buckeyeoutdoors.com/

Hello Everyone

2008-11-04T17:51:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to give a short welcome to everyone visiting my blog.

My name is Matthew S. and I am new to the blogging world. I am a 29 year old male who has been happily married for 5 years+ now to my adorable little wife Crystal. I also have two wonderful sons, Aaron whom is three years old, and Benjamin, whom is 6 months.

This blog will be about my various running stories, training, and just plain ol' thoughts that go through my head while running.

I hope everyone enjoys.