Day 11

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later but last night's run just plain sucked.  My right knee never warmed up and never stopped hurting.  I went a mile, but I walk way more than I ran. I'm going to be downing advil around the clock to see if that helps.  The next few days will really test my resolve because I'll be on the road with the family.  I might be out of touch for a few days as far as new posts go, but I will continue to tweet my runkeeper stats as I finish them
Distance: 1.02 Miles
Time: 17:55
Avg: 17:32

Day 10

I started out my run yesterday thinking that I would only run the minimum mile that I require for a qualifying run partly because I spent about the last 5 hours on my feet at work and partly because I didn't get home until almost 7pm.  Naturally it turned out to be my longest run so far. I also tried to keep pushing past the 1 min run mark with a little bit of success but toward the end I was definitley watching the clock for my next walk break.

Distance: 2.16 miles
Time 27:34
Avg 12:46

Days 7, 8 & 9

Well my writing fell off a little bit over the weekend, but my running didn’t.

Day 7:

Friday I got home from work and it was raining off and on, so I had to sneak in a short run between the thunderstorms. Felt ok not great, but I was happy to have kept my streak up for 7 straight days.  I mean even when I was in college (now granted I was a sprinter/hurdler) I very rarely ran more than 7 days without taking a day off, and most times it was just a 5 consecutive days and usually off on the weekends. 

Distance 1.04 miles

Time: 14:00min

Avg: 13:26

Day 8:

Saturday was a busy day at my house. We had company over at 9:30 in the morning meant that I was cutting the lawn right after making breakfast.  Then my wife and one of her friends took took our 3 year old and her 3 year old to a sneak preview of Cars 2. Which meant that I was home with the 3 week old and I’m not going to take him out into the FL heat.  So I didn’t get my run started until the evening and I took the 3 year old in the stroller with me.  Again it was really hot but I survived.

Distance 1.59 miles

Time: 21:59

Avg 13:49

Day 9 :

Ran late again, and it was hot again (95 degrees at least). Started trying to increase my run between walks up to two minutes.  Went pretty well but I was definitely out of breath at the end.

Distance: 1.42 miles

Time: 19:08

Avg: 13:27

Stay tuned

Day 6

This morning didn't start off right.  There was a brief but powerful thunderstorm that rolled through, so instead of running this morning I was chasing down lawn furniture that we left out last night.  It turned out to be a good thing, because when I got home from work I took my 3yr old in the jogging stroller and had a good run.  My knee didn't hurt nearly as much, so maybe its just an early morning thing.  Either way here is my stats for today.

Distance: 1.45 miles
Time 18:31
avg: 12:46

Day 5: The Smoke screen.

If I hadn’t known any better this morning I would have thought a heavy fog had settled around Jacksonville this morning as I got up to run, but of course it was smoke. There are a lot of wild fires burning burning in and around Northeast Florida currently, but until this morning I really haven't felt the effects or even noticed the smell all that badly.  Today however, my car was dusted with ash and breathing was a little bit of a chore, but I got through it and finished my run.  Again my knee was stiff this morning, but warmed up around the 10 min mark and I felt much better toward the end.  My times have slowed down but I don’t really care at this point.  I’m really just happy that I’ve been able to do it for 5 straight days.  I’m going to finish out this week with the same running pattern 1 min run 1 min walk, and then starting next week, I’m going to run for 2 min run then 1 min walk.  I’ll do a min increase for every week until I get to 5 min, and by then I should be in good enough shape to just keep running straight through.  I’m also going to try and add a long day once a week of at least 30 min.

Today:

Distance: 1.36 miles

Time: 19:23

Avg: 14:17

Day4: The first signs of pain

So I woke up early enough to get a quick run in without being late to work.  It was a struggle, and much slower than the previous days.  My knee wasn't stiff, but it ached a lot, only getting slightly better as I warmed up.

 I have 3 ideas as to why my knees hurt. 
1) It was the 4th day straight of running without taking a day off.  I don't like this one because I've only been going about 1 mile, or so, no more than 1.5 miles.
2)After my run yesterday I played basketball with guys from work, and I me right after my run.  I finished my run, changed shoes and started playing.  The jumping and lateral movement could be a reason.
3) My body didn't have a chance to warm up as it has the last few days.  I got out of bed got dressed and was out of the door in 5 mins.

Hopefully this goes away, but either way I'm happy that I could at least muster the energy to get up and run before work.

Distance 1.04 Miles
Time 14:59
avg 14:25

Day 3

Well I'm sure you'll all be surprised to hear this, but it is very HOT in FL right now.  Forecast calls for upper 90's for today.  So naturally I went for a run during my lunch.  It probably was only about 87-90 but there wasn't a whole lot of shade to be had.   The plan had been to go running at 6am this morning, but my 3 year old took care of that idea at 2:30am when he came in and said that something scared him.  The sucker that I am said that he could lay down with us and then he proceeded to do everything in his power (cute power but devious none the less) to keep me awake for the next 90 mins or so.  The final straw that had me carrying him back to his room at 4am was him turning horizontally in the bed and putting his feet on my face right as I was falling asleep.  He cried for a few mins but then he was fast asleep.  The 5:45 alarm turned into 6:20 very quickly and I didn't get up to run.
Instead I decided that I would play basketball at lunch, and since I didn't want to shower 3 times in 1 day I decided to get my run in before I started playing basketball.  Here are the stats:

Distance .0.96 miles ( really was more than a mile I just didn't get the run keeper started until after I had started running)
Time : 12:23
Avg : 12:50

Its nice to see that even though I am doing a 1 min run 1 min walk pacing my times are steadily coming down (if 3 days makes a trend)

Hopefully I can keep going.
Stay Tuned.

Day 2

Almost for got to post this.
Time 18:52
Distance 1.44
Avg 13:05

Took my 3yr old on the run with me in the jogging stroller to give my wife some sleep time with the 3 week old. Felt pretty good on the run, but I am getting a little sore here as I get ready for bed.  Tomorrow will be the big challenge, having to fit a run in around the work schedule, and its supposed to be 96 F tomorrow so I will really have to try to run in the morning to avoid running in that crazy heat.

Thanks for reading.
Stay tuned.

Day 1 my first Run

Well I did it. I finished my first run and nothing hurts too bad.  I can walk and I'm not seeing spots, all good signs. I downloaded an app for my DroidX called Run Keeper and here are the stats

Time:16:14
Distance: 1.21 miles
Avg:13:23

All and all not too bad. Hopefully more days like this ahead.

Stay tuned.

Inspired to run

I used to be in shape,  I used to be a runner, not anymore.  Now I’m a father, a husband, a BI Consultant for Pragmatic Works, and seriously out of shape.  But something happened this week that made me think that I could give back some of the pounds that I’ve gained.  You see I’ve started using Twitter for professional reasons, and I follow a lot of people it the SQL Server community and I noticed a bunch of tweets going around about #runwithsteve and @way0utwest.  In a nutshell Steve Jones just crossed the 1000 straight days of running.  That is a seriously impressive feat.

They say that Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so here I go.  I’m not going to try to run for 1000 straight days, I’m just going to try and run everyday, one day at a time, one mile at a time.  I’m starting today.

Here are the parameters I’m setting for myself.

1. Dressed appropriately for the run, meaning shorts t-shirt and running shoes'
2. Must run at least 1 mile straight.  Cannot breakup the run into 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 at night
3. Even if I do another form of exercise that day, I must still run.

That is it.  Its not complicated, it just takes a commitment, and in part that is what this blog will be my commitment to myself to post once a day with the results of my run for the day, with a link to map my run.

I also plan to schedule some races here and there just to keep things interesting and measure my improvement. The big one will probably be the Half Marathon in Jacksonville in 2012 @262withDonna, with some random 5k and 10k races along the way.  If you have any tips or encouragement you want to pass along, please feel free to leave a comment.  Wish me luck and stay tuned.