Do you believe in spirit animals?

In my ever quest to tap into my native American culture… or just to be more like Brian G.

(http://nyvelocity.com/content/coachingfitness/2012/breaking-brian-entry-11)

…  I often try and visualize what my spirit animal is…

I have even taken a quiz online:

This weekend I did not embody the spirit of the wolverine…

On Saturday we had a 3.5 hour run planned…  no great adventure on this day just a few extra miles tagged on to one of our well used training routes…

An artist's depiction of our Saturday run…  Judi led me most of the way…  no rope but… 

My spirit animal on this day… the ox…

A whopping 19 miles in 3:45….  12 mpm pace and it suckethed…  I was tired…  and hurting the whole way…  I wanted to stop at mile 8.  And did stop at mile 10 for about 10 minutes…  was making deals with myself

"just run to that stop sign"…  "you can walk at the red-light"  etc…

Everything hurt… feet, ankles, quads, glutes….

I was completely cooked afterwards too…

Sunday was going to be different!

I had a plan… 

Judi's plan called for a 1:45 run…. 

My plan…  in my brain said…  "Run 12 mi in 1:45 just to prove that you are a runner and not a draft animal"

So I set out…  no trying to be pretty or graceful…  but smooth and easy like a mule…  who has it in his head where he wants to go.

And I did…  after a 9:40 first mile I just started piling up the 8:30s…  by mile 11 I had slipped to 9:14 but…  in the end I ran 11.93 miles in 1:46

No gazelle but…  I feel better.

.... And just like that... It's summer

A good weekend her in the deep south…

Started off with a nice bottle of wine Friday evening.

We purposely started a bit late on Saturday…  time to incorporate a bit of heat acclimatization

A beautiful morning at the trailhead…

But we were still a bit cautious because we had a kinda sketchy map of the area.

The following picture tells a lot of our story… 

all of the fire roads started with the #1… 

Many of the roads were deeply rutted sugar sand

And ironically enough…  this piece of sign was located at the intersection that linked the two sides of the preserve. 

We got a bit turned around for a while… 

But eventually found our way through and onto some nice roads.

And ultimately made it to the Game cleaning station before we turned around.

The return trip was much more direct... and quite hot

Here is a shot of my ugly, dirty, sandy, foot…

Note to self…  get some gaiters

Sunday was nice…  we hit the beach for the first time this year

This is not our bike…  but I do like it

The treasures we found…

And a nice group shot:

And just to round out the weekend we ran a roundabout route home from the beach…  9.3 miles

Gettin Physical

Yep that was us at the gym yesterday… an hour…  not a single weight was touched…

We did do a bunch of stuff like this:

Specifically:

walking lunges 2x 50 reps

side stepping squats 2x 50 reps

2 circuits of the below:

#1-Hip Circles 15 reps each way
#2-Circles 15 reps
#3-Inner Thigh Lifts 15 reps
#4-Side Kick Up/Down 15 reps
#5-Prone Leg Lifts 15 reps
#6-Reverse Lunge 15 reps (you can skip this)
#7-Heel Walking 15 steps each foot

Yesterday I was a bit wiped out…  from just that little Janeish workout

Today I am sore…  hips..  glutes…

and I snapped a quick self-portrait in the mirror this morning

Traveling Fools

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." Saint Augustine

This past weekend we went down to Tampa.  Judi went to take a certification exam while I took an opportunity to check in with our company's Tampa office.  I found the router…  and plugged in the secondary power supply.  Pure genius!

It can get hot in Florida in March…

Since we were in the vicinity… and since we did not register in time to actually do the race this year… we decided to run the course for this race: 

Croom Trail 50 Mile, 50K, & 16 Mile Fool Run http://www.fools50.com/race.htm

The loop was 16 miles…  we wanted to

a.      Run 18ish

b.      See the River

So we planned to do an out-and-back to the river roughly from Aid Station #2 above.

We found the start…  a nicely maintained park at the trailhead.

After chasing Judi down the trials for a couple of hours

(Check out her new "Women's Specific" hydration pack)

We made it to the Withlacoochee River.

Yes…  it was raining slightly.

the trails were hilly by Florida standards...  and beautiful....  over three hours out there and we saw no one else on the trails....  my idea of a blissful day

We made it back to our car…  and eventually back to Jax.

Since we got our long run in on Friday…  we pretended to be cyclists on Saturday.

We felt awesome heading south on A1A

25 MPH headwinds on the return leg reminded us that we were not yet ready for the Pro TOur

A beautiful Sunrises greeted us in Jax beach for our Sunday run.

Then having done all that strenuous exercise…  Judi finished off the weekend by eating an entire jar of Peanut butter (not really)

February in review

Doing some stretching while I watch my daughter's football practice.

Swim -- None

Bike --- 210 miles

Run ---- 179 miles

Core --- 230 minutes

Stretching -- as much as possible (doing a standing pigeon at my desk as I type this)

Lacrosse Ball - the same...

Total -- 46:45

A year ago I was in the best running shape of my life...  Then fell and tore a muscle in my quad.

I changed my gait to accommodate both a bum knee and an injured quad...  I was using almost all hamstrings then Bing! Piriformis

I'm treating the Piriformis...  strengthening and working on mobility... and trying to learn to run properly again.

Now I'm in overall better shape core/flexibility/strength wise...  but the speed is missing still.

I am, a work in progress.

Getting my Gandhi on...

Our local track club traditionally puts on a 50K in the February/March timeframe.

I've done the race before and very much enjoyed it.

http://allaboutpace.blogspot.com/2010/03/guana-50k.html

I had it on my race calendar this year… 

http://www.jtcrunning.com/Calendars/Club_Races___Events.htm

Here is what the webpage currently says…

Late February has come and gone with no word of the event and with no response to my repeated emails to the club president.

So yesterday I wrote a check…  and filled out an application to become a member of the club…  and on my membership form I noted my desire to organize this event in 2013…  so I may be the RD for the race next year…  we shall see.