Christmas and Holiday Training

I just wanted to post a short little update today and mention how the Christmas holiday has influenced my workouts.

If you remember, I mentioned that over the Thanksgiving holiday I gained 4.5 pounds in 5 days. It was a little frustrating because I had done so well after the season to keep most of the "winter weight" off. Anyway, I told myself that I wouldn't let December turn into a month that became impossible to recover from for a few months.

It turned out to be an excellent month! I turned on my workoutlog around December 20th and realized that I had no "zeros" (days with no workouts). Not only that but my swimming had been pretty consistent and I have been starting to feel like a swimmer.

I made a goal to get through December with out taking any zeros and not putting on any more weight. I didn't make the first goal. Nikki and I spent the 22nd driving and I made the mistake of not getting my things together in advance; therefore I missed that day. I didn't even get in an easy run.

I don't think I have put on any more weight, but we'll see once we make it home. I'll also share some photos of the temptations that I have to work through in order to make it through the holidays. It has been a learning experience to spend these two holidays with Nikki's family. My family isn't the kind of family to have cakes, pies and plates full of cookies laying around... Nikki's family does. Match that environment to my lack of self control - we get some serious sugar comas.

January looks like it might be a good month too. I'll start off the 2007 year by running in the Hangover Classic 10 mile race (PDF) in Louisville on January 1. That will be followed by a long day of football. Go Huskers, Beat Auburn!

Sidenote: hmm! I just looked up the Hangover Classic and Nebraska game to get the links... the race starts at 10am the game starts at 11:30am. I might not run the Classic! Might just be a lot of riding on the trainer this week?

Trouble with Blogger.

I hope that I can get this message posted. I am having issues posting to my blog.... I'll be posting more regularly again once I figure out if moving over to the new blogger has caused this issue.

Keep the faith - gary

Christmas Run today.

I have talked about the Todd's Road Stumblers on a few occasions in the past. [Check out the posts here, here and my 500 mile club finish.]

Of all the "things" that have helped improve my running over the years, moving to Lexington, Kentucky and joining the Stumblers has been one of the top two "things". Why has the Stumblers helped my running so much? They helped me acheive the consistency of putting in the miles that a runner needs to help improve over time. There is one constant about this running group - and that constant is that there is always a fellow Stumbler that is willing to go 13, 15, 18 and even 20 miles with you.

There were many times through the winter of '02/'03 that a fellow runner would talk me into running 2 to 6 miles further than I really wanted to run. But in the end, I ran more miles than ever before and I ran a marathon personal best. (Thanks Phil, Jim, George and others....)

Today was the annual Christmas Run. It was also my first opportunity to join the group for the run, the carolling downtown and the McDonald's breakfast afterwards. It was great to see so many runners there to join in on the fun. And it was neat to see all the runners that I come in contact with at different times there to run together for a single run.

I have been grateful for the Stumblers over the past 4 years, but there is also one person that the Stumblers are very thankful for too - Mr. Alex Campbell. Mr. Campbell was the founder of the Stumblers a long time ago. This morning I was told that he started the group in 1968, but the website says 1975. In either case, Mr. Campbell has been the supporting thread and constant presense in the group. After running with the Stumblers for 4 years, I got to finally meet Mr. Campbell and tell him thanks.

Thank you again!

Sidenote: I saw another interview today with Mark Nenow. In it he talks about the Stumblers and some other interesting things.

Does "slow down" mean "walk" for me?

Does “slow down” mean “walk” for me?

I have been emotionally struggling with the idea lately that I need to start walking during my runs. It is a strange thing when my ego gets in the way of training “optimally”, but it seems to happen a lot. Admitting that I need to start walking doesn’t feel right, even though the data is telling me that it just might make me faster later in my race year.

» To read the rest of my thoughts on this use this link: Does "slow down" mean "walk" for me? - posted on MideastMultisport's Blog