For the record, WE DID IT.

I am so proud of us for setting the goal, and training, and blogging (ok, so we were a little more OCD about it in the beginning, oh well), and actually doing the 5 K together. HONK!!

We have accomplished a lot, and I just love our little team.

And one more thing. I had no idea how much FUN I would have actually doing the 5K. I mean, I know Team Liz walked a good portion of it, and therefore breathing was a little easier, but seriously, it made me wanna do a 5K every week. I loved the drive, the cold, the dark, the late night aspect, the post run pancakes, and my new playlist.

Something from Born to Run that has stuck out to me, is this tribe in Mexico, they call themselves "the running people" (in a dialect of Spanish), right? well their whole like motto is that running should be fun. if you aren't enjoying it, you are doing something wrong. and for me, jumping around in my toe shoes made it fun again, like when you are a kid and you say "hey mom look at this!" and you take a running leap to clear a 5 inch curb. its more fun to run around with other people and do that, which is difficult to coordinate, so i'm going to try to remedy that somehow... not sure yet how though.

BOOOOOOOOO

Well. I ran the other day. And then today. Neither of which were very successful. Today my foot started hurting all kinds of intense. Of which that really bummed me out. :( I'm really hoping that tomorrow will look better. I'm pretty determined to make it the whole three miles without walking. So yeah, this week is the "now or never" week for me I think. I'm just nervous about the race only for the reason of my foot and not being able to finish, ya know? Well, I know I'll finish - I just don't want to walk.

Okay, enough of that. Even though I'm nervous, I'm still excited about the race. It'll be fun and really pretty with all the lights. :) It'll be a nice way to really kick off the holiday season, I think. Plus we get a t-shirt! haha!:)

Anyway, I will see you both VERY SOON!

HONK!

PS - we should coordinate ourselves.....maybe.... ;)

pool time

So after I wrote my last blog post I immediatly went downstairs to the gym to go run. I figured I'd make it a light run then jump in the pool. I did a mile at a pretty good pace, faster than normal since it was on a treadmill and that makes it a little harder to slow down, granted all you have to do is press a button but still harder than running outside.

Anyway, I get done with my run and go to get into the pool but you have to swipe your room key and i couldn't get in! Turns out the pool didn't open until 6 am (it was 5:30 am when I tried). So I went back into the gym and decided to get on the stair master. I figured if I got on the treadmill again I might just go back to the room when I was done (due to being too tired) instead of get in the pool. I did 30 mins on the stair master and got into the pool.

It was HEAVEN! Did I tell you how much I love swimming? I think I was a fish or a dolphin in another life or something. I did several lengths of the pool swam for about 20 mins in all and then jumped into the spa. It was nice and hot but I didn't stay in it too long. Spa's/hot tub's are no fun alone ;).

All in all a GREAT morning. Now if only i can get back to sleep.....

Matt

Nov 2: 2.27

Nov 4: 2.75

Nov 7: 1.7

Nov 9: 3.11

Nov 12: 2.00

Nov 15: 1.00

Total: 12.83

hills

So I need to do a quick post about my run on Thursday. I decided to set up a different type of run for each day I run. Mondays will be speed days, where I attempt to run 3.1 miles in the fastest time possible. Wednesdays will be hills, pretty self explanatory. And Fridays will be endurance, where I will attempt to run longer distances with the goal to end up running 6.2 miles (10K).

I skipped running on Wednesday thinking I would be able to push Friday's run back to Sat. Needless to say if you've seen my facebook and twitter posts you know how that worked out.

So Thursday I ran hills. What I had to do since Valdosta doesn't really have "hills" they have "gradual inclines" and none consistently in a row that it makes for a good work out, is I went to the track and ran the hills there. The new middle school sits higher up than the track next to it so the track is surrounded by these pretty steep hills on about 2/3 of it. So I did a warm up walking lap then made for the first hill. All in all it wasn't bad. I now know why hills make for good workouts as my legs were a burnin! I ran in a big circle going up and down the hills for about 20 minutes. My goal is to increase the amount of time I'm able to run the hills.

Well I gotta run (literally) I'm at the hotel and since I'm somewhat caught up on sleep (while everyone else I'm in the suite with is sleeping) I'm going to make use of their gym AND POOL! I'm really pumped about the pool :)

Matt

Nov 2: 2.27

Nov 4: 2.75

Nov 7: 1.7

Nov 9: 3.11

Nov 12: 2.00

Total: 11.83

I am excited for the 5K!

I went barefoot running again in my purple toe shoes today. i had to take a couple walking breaks in there, but i went for longer than i had in a LONG time. I just had some shoulder side stiches that made it difficult. I am hoping to run a lot sunday-wed, then break til the race! i mailed my stuff in, so its official now :) Perhaps that was all I had to say... oh, so yesterday i slept from 11am-3, then from 1:30am-4:30am. I laid in bed til 5:30, but at that point i realized it was hopeless, so i got up, ate breakfast, put 4 loads of clean laundry away, cleaned my room, packed for the weekend, and got out the door for a run by 8am. who's impressed? i am. my body is so weird though. i mean really 4 hours of sleep shouldn't be enough. that is just a nap. but oh well. i just love my time off so much, i don't argue with getting to spend more of it awake, hanging out with people, being productive, or just lounging around.

ok race day is soon... HONK!!

I might be a little crazy

It's been a while, I know. Please accept my sincerest apologies. :)

I didn't run last week - I was sick and in bed most of the week with a ton of coughing and congestion in my chest and nose. So yeah, NyQuil was my best friend all week. :) Today was the first day back running. I was dag gum determined to go 2 miles today. I've still had to walk during my run but today I didn't want to do any walking. I knew that I wouldn't be able to go for very long since I've been out of commission for a week so thinking that I could knock out 3 miles was kinda unreasonable. But let me tell you - I did my warm up walk and determination set in. Once I started running, I was going for it - I was gonna get to 2 miles come hell or high water hah. I went to the gym to run since the rain was pretty intense and cold. Cold rain would not be that healthy for me haha. I started my Nike+ once I started running, so I did 2 miles even. I had to coax myself in increments once I hit the mile mark - "okay just get through another quarter of a mile and see how you're doing then" was my mantra for the second mile hah. But I made it and was pretty happy about it. :)

Tuesdays are yoga days. So I immediately left the gym all sweaty and whatnot to head to yoga. I had almost slowed my heart rate back to normal by the time I get to yoga and have to make a small sprint up the stairs to get there in time haha. And then I sweat for another hour and a half. So yeah, I sweat continuously for about 2 1/2 hours haha.

Tomorrow I'm planning on running again. That's the plan, but I may not be able to walk comfortably b/c of the running and yoga. I'm trying to get ready for our FIRST 5K TOGETHER (YAY!!!!!) next Friday and it would be nice if I could actually get through the 3 miles without dying. My plan is to run almost every day leading up to the race. I set pretty high expectations for myself and up to this point, they haven't been met for reasons like my knee and foot acting up with the sickness that happened last week. So yeah, slightly disappointed in myself on the micro level of not being able to run as far as I would like, but proud of myself that only a few months ago I couldn't get anywhere near where I am now. On another positive note, I realized while on the treadmill that my pace has gotten faster than when I started running, which confirms what I thought but it was cool to actually see that on the treadmill.

I'm really excited about our race - I think it's gonna be pretty freaking awesome. :) HONK!

Timed Run

This evening I took a little different strategy with my run. Since my time at the last 5K was 35:48, I decided to set my Nike+ to 35 mins and see if I could do 3.1 miles in less than that. This new strategy must be taken with a grain of salt given that my Nike+ might be off but none the less, I did it!

I ran 3.11 miles in 34:42!

I was so pumped! and yet soooooo tired. My shirt was soaked, my legs were on fire and during the run I had multiple side stitches. I also wanted to quit several times but didn't. There is a quote from Lance Armstrong that I'm going to paraphrase that I really feel sums up my running philosophy. Lance says basically that pain is temporary, whether it lasts a minute, hour, day, week or year, it will end. But the pain of quitting, that will last forever.

Some days I fail at this attitude and cut a run short. But when I'm at my best and most determined, I. Will. Not. Quit. When I'm at my best and most determined, if I stop running, either I've crossed the finish line or I'm passed out on the ground from exhaustion.

This is how I feel about running. Like I said, I don't always succeed but the pain from quitting sticks with me and pushes me to do better.

Matt

Nov 2: 2.27

Nov 4: 2.75

Nov 7: 1.7

Nov 9: 3.11

Total: 9.83

Holy Fun Run

Went for a pretty quick run yesterday at Honey Creek. I'm slowly starting to realize why people love that place so much. It's one of my favorite places in earth.

I ended up running 1.7 miles and that was mainly due to schedule restraints on the weeekend. We had a fair amount of free time but it got eaten into by a couple things. All in all a very good weekend and a good run.

Nov 2: 2.27
Nov 4: 2.75
Nov 7: 1.7

Total: 6.6

Here are some pics from the weekend:
















Matt

--Post From My iPhone

Run For Vocare: Run #2

Yesterday's run went well although shorter than I had planned. I was going to try for a 4 mile run (not including the warm up and cool down walks) but ended up with a nice round 3 mile (2.75 mile run + .25 mile warm up walk).

This change was mainly the result of the route I took. I ended up running around a neighborhood that was unfamiliar to me (at to boot) and was going to do one of those "I'll turn back in the direction I came and just hope to end up back at my truck" sorta deal. Funny thing is, I ended up running to a road and being like "holy crap, this is not where I expected to end up!" So then I knew right where I was and just turned back and headed in a direction I knew. So by the time I got to my truck I wasn't anywhere near the 4 mile mark so i decided to just end the run at a respectable 3 miles.

This weekend is Holy Fun out at Honey Creek. We're leaving immediately after work tomorrow so there probably won't be a chance for a run but I will most definitely get one in Saturday and hopefully I'll be able to post via my phone from HC (I'll be sure to include a sweet pic too, which should be easy and Honey Creek is insanely picturesque).

Nov 2: 2.27 miles

Nov 4: 2.75 miles

Total miles: 5.02

Peace

Matt

5K/Run for Vocare

The St. Johns Road Race was this past Saturday, Halloween morning. The route took us through all kinds of side streets and neighborhoods. Completely opposite of the VSU 5k back in August. That race there were long straight stretches down main streets in Valdosta. My time for that race was 41:49. And my time for the St. Johns 5K was.......35:48! A full 6 minutes faster than my VSU time!. As I crossed the finish line I honestly started to cry, I was just so emotional cuz of how hard I worked to get my time down. I didn't cry however, instead I puked. Yeah, not too proud of that but it was only because I was pushing myself so hard. Irregardless I am very proud of how well I did.

Now, the Run for Vocare, the fundraiser other Vocati and I are doing this month officially started yesterday and I had my first run today. I decided my Nike+ needed recalibrating so I did 2 laps walking and 2 laps running at the track today then I did 2 miles (I did 8 laps and my nike+ said it was more than 2 miles but we'll see how I calculate it later).

I have gotten a fair amount of pledges. And I really owe that to the Very Rev. Dr. Denise Ronn. She basically went around to all the tables at coffee hour and said "so how much are you going to pledge for Matthew?" which was awesome and made me laugh. So thanks Denise!

Look for more posts and updates on how many miles I've run so far.

Nov 2 - 2.27 miles

Matt

I'M BACK!!

I have picked up the habit again. running. I am hoping to really get into the barefoot running thing, so today I ran in my toe shoes!!

I only ran for 15 minutes to make sure I didn't overdo it before I was used to my shoes. But the run was great. The weather was nice, I felt light on my feet, and it didn't hurt my joints. So I'll be honest, I'm pretty pumped. Thats all for now.