Saturday Run #3: 5.73 Miles Down, almost at a 10K

I finally got out and ran today after only getting to get in a 5K last week on Tuesday. I had my Thursday run wrecked by my decision to wait in line for the iPhone 4 on June 24th when it became available. However I had gotten a ready for this week by running trying to eat a little smarter. This was supposed to be our  long run for the week. You can notice that my run was 1 hr 18min long. It's crazy that I have gotten up to runs that are that long. During my run you can notice that I had a bunch of peaks and vallies. I definitely run kept running hard and then walked and then ran hard then walked and so on and so on. The hardest part about running is keeping a steady pace. For me it seems to be a little harder because I have a longer stride because of my height. When I jog at a slow pace it almost seems easier to walk fast. However, when it's time for me to kick it into a more of a jogging pace, I almost feel like it's easier for me to just get in my running pace. Hopefully I'll be able to move this into a productive steady running pace further in the year during my training.

This was definitely my longest run of the year so far. I have to tell you that my legs are feeling pretty good right now. I am running a 13:30 pace consistently in super hot heat. I'm told that 2 minutes at least can be shed when the weather cools down just at this current level of training. Even with my 13:30 pace right now, I can finish the marathon under the 6:00 hour mark at this point. However I hope that with my training I can be more intense and get my pace down to finish this thing around 4 hr 30 min to 5 hr.  If people run with me they'll notice that I don't give up and walk away. I always finish. When I start finally getting my caloric intake in and really start shedding the poundage away this might make all of this easier.

Alright, enough babbling. I need to go to bed here soon. As you can tell I've been getting up early. Oh yeah, I also got this little notice today when I logged my milage in. Money!

Running Club: June 19

This was my third run with the group this Saturday. I knew we weren't going to just run the 3.3 miles that I did last Saturday, and I was right. When I got there the Stern's said that we could run the same route, we just needed to extend ourself and run a little longer or a little farther. I got to run with Shawna Moulton who is in my Sunday school class this weekend because we were in the same grouping as far as  ability to run. Shawna turned out to be a pretty good running partner because we were able to push each other when each of us really wanted to stop. I didn't feel like I was dragging our little group. We ran a total of 4.23 miles today, which was by far my longest run I have had since I have started training. It's brutal out there with the temperature at 7:00 AM being in the low 80's. It's hard.

Next week I'm told we are running a 6 miler. Yeah. That's a 10K. WoW.

These are my runs since I've started on the Nike+ running system with my runs. As you can see. I blew it out of the water today.

And Got a sweet little notice when I logged online to Nikeplus.com about this...

Working out with friends

I was going to do a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday schedule this week, but that has changed as Corrie had her friend from QVE Mrs. Scott meet us at Community park to go walk/run. I started with my new marathon pacing of going 3 minutes running/ 1 minute walking and got about a mile or so in and opted to go back and meet up with Corrie and Mrs. Scott. I enjoyed my conversation with them as we completed a 5K basically in our running.

I'll adjust my running to a Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday run or Monday/Wednesday/Saturday. We'll see!

First "Running Club" Run

Well this Saturday I was able to meet up at Commonwealth Elementary with our running club for our first official run together. Talk about a sloth getting to run with cheetahs! There were several people who could run the whole 4.7 scheduled miles that we were to run. I elected to take the shorter route in my run and made about 3.3 miles in the run. This was a little bit more than 5K. I ran with a lady named "Angel" who hasn't ran as much in the past year and was trying to get in shape just like I was. She was a little more in shape which made her end up coaching me not to quit towards the end of our run. I like these Saturday runs because they are challenging.

Somehow I need to be able to run 6 Miles by the end of the month in a run. I know that I can do this as far as stamina, but I can't do it in a marathon format. I need these Saturday to become my long run days and take those runs as the best I can do for right now. Hopefully next weeks long run gets a little farther. Perhaps 4.5 miles or so?

Anyway, now for some visuals.

This is was my run, notice how up and down it is, our coaches had asked me to do a 3/1 type of run where I run for 3 minutes at my current pace, then one minute on a fast walk. You probably notice that my runs were pretty fast to start as well as my walks and then tapered off. I'll get better!

This was my farthest run yet, according to my Nike+ running system.

So far my Saturday run set up my fastest 1 Mi. Pace as well as my fastest 5K.

This is my weeks efforts. I ran a total of 5 runs this week. I'll probably bring back my runs per week to 4 max, with the hardest run being Saturday during the running club. I was simply gassed by the end of the week. I ran my best run on Thursday and could of gone further if the dog wasn't getting tired.

A 5K a day....

I was able to pound out a 5K today this morning. It was great that three runs after my initial 5K to start my training I was about to get another 5K done. I would of finished in better time, but my dog was with me, and as you know, that makes us have some seriously unpredictable runs. I can be running on a great pace and then suddenly have to stop because Selah needs to pee. 

Since I reported to you that I found out that the Houston Marathon was going to a lottery system I have found several other potential replacements in the event that I don't get the spot in this years Marathon. 

Here's the list:

1. Angies Half-Crazy Half-Marathon

2. Sugar Land Marathon

3. Austin Marathon

Running with your Dog, and winning the Lottery.

First off, if you are one of my few readers to this blog let me assure you that I didn't win the Texas Lottery. Although I think that would be swell as well. First let me get to the first part of the title of this blog post.

This morning I got up to run and was guilted by Corrie to bring the dog along. Now our dog, Selah, is about a 6-7 year old Jack Russell/Rat Terrier. She's definitely not in tip top shape and frequently stops and starts. As you can see the track from my run this morning we were up and down quite often. If you notice the peak run where we ran really fast near the end of our run, that was when we ran across a Bunny and Selah had to chase it down for a while. Needless to say, she probably won't be going on every run that I do, either that or she'll have to learn to not stop as much.

The second part that I previously mentioned was the lottery. I need to win the lottery, that is with the Houston Marathon committee. Apparently this past year the Marathon sold out in 60 hours, so they wanted to give those that didn't have the ability to sign up a fair chance to sign up for the race. Sooo, they have instituted a lottery system for this years sign up process. From July 27 to April 12th I have a chance to sign up for a ticket into the lottery. I will be notified about a week after the 12th of August if I got a spot in the Marathon. What happens if I don't get a spot in the Marathon? I don't know, but I'll figure that out when I cross that bridge. I really wish they wouldn't have done that, but who knows what will happen. I'll still press on in my training, that's for sure!

Bringing Your Pet, and check your Lotto Numbers?

Not that I want

Injured Already?

I started my actual running this morning for my marathon training. I went in my neighborhood rather than going to a track just because of time issues. I want to create a routine of running in the morning that I can be on auto pilot about. I woke up at 6:30 AM and got outside around 6:42 AM. It was a rather humid morning to run, but I started anyway. I started running and got some great pacing and then my toe injury kicked in.

Now your probably thinking "Really, your hurt already from running." Well actually, no, I hurt it cleaning pool salt from the trunk of my car.  Evidently when I purchased my pool salt to get the pool ready for this summer there was a hole in the bag and I didn't realize it. I went to go clean out my car Saturday evening and took the floorboard to the trunk out of the car. I didn't realize the weight of it when I took it out the car and it landed on my left big toe. It didn't initially hurt and really doesn't hurt to walk on, but I can't put pressure on it for a long time. It will hopefully get better over the next few days and allow me to put some pace in my morning runs. As you can see on chart below I started out in my run with a pretty stark pace and once I realized that my toe wasn't going to let me go my normal pace, I had to go at a brisk walk.

Race Day Report

As you know from reading my past posts, I ran the Impact A Hero 5K here in Sugar Land, Texas on June 5, 2010.

My Race Day Report:

 As I had mentioned the day before, I seriously couldn't sleep because I was just too excited for the race. It wasn't that I felt like I was going to set a serious personal best or that I knew the conditions were apt for me to be do great, I simply was excited to start my marathon training and knew this was the first obstacle in training.

I had set all my clothes out Friday night, along with my new little gadgets that I wanted to use to keep my time and my personal things. I had chosen an all blue outfit to run with purely based on the fact that it matched, not that it would help me race better (I really can't see myself running with those skin tight running suits any time during my training).  I woke up around 5:45 and immediately jumped to go grab my clothes and gear and put it all on. I seriously was ready an hour before I had to leave, so I just left anyway. The race was at 7:25 AM and I got there at 6:10 AM when they were still setting up several of the tents. I had gotten there so early that I got a premiere parking spot and didn't have to run my own personal 5K just to get to the starting line!

After getting out and going about the grounds next to the FBISD Administration building I went back to my car to put together my On-The-Go Playlist for my iPhone while I raced. I put in GRITs, BizMarkie, DJ Kool, and a couple of others randomly so that I could have an eclectic group of stuff to listen to as I raced. If anyone knows the Nike+ Ipod system, I set my power song to be "Eye of The Tiger". Yeah I'm that cheesy.

My friend, Jose Barrera, agreed to run with me on this 5K. Let me preface to say that Jose is by far a more experienced, more in shape runner than I am, but he agreed to coach me along during my run. I don't think he fully understood how far out of shape I was compared to himself.

We positioned ourself at the middle of the pack for the starter pistol and were off. I would say that the first 3/4ths of a mile I had a pretty good pace, then I started to feel it about the mile mark and had to stop to walk some. I would intermittently walk and jog until I got to about the 1 1/2 mile mark. I definitely needed water at the first water station, primarily because I just hadn't hydrated enough/well the night before or day of. When I got to the 2 mile mark, I felt my chest start to hurt and my legs start to cramp up. I pressed on, much to the urging of Jose to keep on going. I struggled with keeping a walk and a jog that last mile because when I would start to jog the top of my leg would give out into a walk causing me to walk again. I wanted to pick up my pace so that wouldn't happen, but I was spent. I definitely should of carb loaded a little more the night before and not had those 3 cookies(I'm learning).

As we got within in sight of the finish line, probably 400 yards or so, I had my "dig deep from within" moment as I set up myself to do a 3/4th of a run. I definitely didn't have it within me but I didn't want to give up with so many people watching at the finish line. I was definitely looking pretty emaciated near the finish line, which I think aided in me getting a pretty loud response from the crowd watching the finishers.

I immediately after crossing the line started feeling light headed and wanted to sit down. Jose had me continue to walk around and keep my self moving to cool down rather than just stop. He kept feeding me water from the water tent to replenish some of my fluids lost during my run. I definitely didn't expect to feel so flush, but I did but after a while it was over and I felt a little better.

Reflection:

 I definitely have a long way to go to be ready for a marathon or half marathon. I'm not going to give up by any means, but I do have a benchmark for where I am and where I need to go over the next months in preparation for the January 2011 run.  I start bright and early on Monday morning with my bright and early runs. I wanted to start earlier but just couldn't with the end of the school year coming to a close.

Here are the official results:

Impact a Hero 5K Results

This is my Nike + Ipod system that I use with my Iphone. I forgot to turn off the workout after I crossed the finish line so the timing is a little off, but you can see the ups and downs of my pace.

Race Day Hype

I'm pretty excited for the race that I have to get up for in 4-5 hours. So much I'm up late tonight with anxiousness to get there and run.

Picked up my bib for this weekends race!

I also picked up some pretty cool gear for my run on Saturday. Big ups to my friend Jose Barrera who signed up to run with me on Saturday and will be my coach (he is a more avid runner).

Impact A Hero 5k

My running club mentioned to me that they were running the Impact A Hero 5K here in Sugar Land this weekend on Saturday. I am looking forward toward this run as it is about the easiest 5K that you can possibly run as it is a straight back and forth course and not a winding course.

My goals for this race are the following:
1. Establish a running pace that can sustain itself.
2. Be able to properly channel the race day emotions into a productive run.
3. Finish under 33 Minutes (previous 5K's were 37 minutes and 35 minutes)

You can donate to the cause through my team page that my registration set up at this LINK:http://www.active.com/donate/impactahero/heroJPortie

Welcome to my blog!

Okay, so if any of you have been following my blog at ThePortiers.com you will notice that my blog no longer has anything coming to it. As of now, I have taken it off line and deleted the account at ThePortiers.com. Primarily because when I started the blog, things like Facebook and Twitter weren't around or prevalent and so we really had to turn to people's blogs to let hem know what was going on in our lives.

That being said, as a hold over until I feel like paying for a blog again (domain & server space) I have opened up and set up a blogspot blog to help chronicle my upcoming training for a marathon.

I'm naming this blog "Run Fat Boy Run" although the web URL is SlouchCouchMarathon.BlogSpot.com.   If anyone knows me back from my days of being the athletic trainer for my Liberty Panthers Cross Country team in high school, you know that I have always enjoyed WATCHING running, and not necessarily been apt to be able to run something like that. However, my church recently started up a running club headed by some pretty stout runners who promise that they can get me in shape for at least the Aramaco Half-Marathon.

I hope to use this blog to chronicle my runs, as well as my purchases and preperations that are coming as I prepare. Be sure to check back often, and encourage me. It's not easy to get this body moving.