Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Back to Life, Back to Training

Back to Life, Back to Training

I can not express how happy I am feeling right now.  Why do you ask?  Well last week I got the opportunity to start running again.  You see this is a big deal because I was not able to run at all for 8 weeks because I sustained a stress fracture at my last race on October 13th.  I have done approximately 6 runs so far.  My first was just to test it out see how it was feeling, only did 30 minutes and not at a fast rate, my wife and I ran together so that was good because I did not push it.  The second run was about 15 minutes because I needed to get home from church and did not have a ride so I ran.  The third run was 38 minutes, with no pain.  So the fourth run I decided to step it up a little and completed 41 minutes and still no pain so that was awesome.  The fifth run was a little more intense because I was feeling pretty good so I did 55 minutes in the rain and cold on the trails around Seward Park.  The sixth workout was at the gym because it was to cold and dark out to run.  I completed an one hour workout.  I did my standard workout that I call the 10-20-30.  10 minutes of working out my core with weights. 20 minutes on the spin bike. 30 minutes on the treadmill, this 30 minutes was pretty intense, 3.66 miles in 30 minutes.

I am super happy with my progress and I am very excited for the race season to start.  My first race is February 17th in Arizona.  I will be running the Lost Dutchman Mine Marathon.  This is an annual trip for me because it is like second Christmas for me because I go visit my sister and her family and my mom.  They all live together and the race is within walking distance from their house.  I am very happy to be running again and my passion for running has been renewed.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Western States 100 Lottery Viewing Party

Western States 100 Lottery Viewing Party

  This Saturday, December 8th, is the lottery drawing for the Western States 100.  The drawing starts at 9AM and goes to 11AM.  I am entered into it this year for my first time ever.  Currently I have a 7.4 percent chance of being selected.

  I am having a viewing party at my house in Seattle (5116 S Willow Street, Seattle WA 98118) on this day.  If you are reading this, you are invited.  My wife and I will be serving breakfast to anyone who shows up at about 8:30 AM and then we will have my computer hooked up to our TV so we can watch for results and see if my name gets drawn.  I believe they have a live video feed that we will be able to watch.

  Hopefully I will be selected for this race but if not my back up plan is to run the Pine to Palm 100 mile race in Ashland, OR at the end of the September.  I will try to take some pictures of the party and give post race summary of what happened.  

  Currently I am not running for about another week because of my injury but I plan on starting running again on December 10th.  My first race for 2013 is February 17th, 2013 with the Lost Dutchman Marathon in Apache Junction, AZ.  I already have my tickets for that race.  And a new update to my 2013 race calendar is that I am going to try to enter the Chuckanut 50K in March which was just announced this week, it will also be a lottery drawing so hopefully I will be able to get in for that one.

Thanks for reading
Chris