Marathon...Are you kidding me??

About a month ago I started doing push-ups and sit-ups in an attempt to get in a little bit better shape. The guy looking back at me in the mirror was becoming less and less familiar. About 2 weeks ago I got an email from Joe Heywood who has been one of my best friends for about 12 years, mentioning that he was doing a marathon. In a moment of disgust with himself last year he made the decision to run one about 3 months before the race. This year he's started much earlier so he doesn't hear anything snap in his foot during the last few miles. He made a brief comment in his email that I should join him this year. Jennifer has been screening my emails apparently and tried to erase it. What she doesn't know is that all of my email from that account is forwarded to my work email so I got it anyway. :-)

Well, I'm going to do it. It's the Ogden Marathon and it takes place on May 17th, 2008. I've made two purchases that will help me in my training. The first item is a pair of running shoes. (They looked nice in the picture so I thought they'd do just fine.) The second item is an ice pack for my knees. I don't have any bad knee problems to begin with, but I want to avoid having to limit my training due to an injury. I noticed that Joe mentioned Vaseline in one of our email strings and I'm still nervous to ask him what that's all about.

I'm about 182 lbs right now and I'd like to get down to about 170 in about 8 weeks. This will put less strain on my joints while I'm running increasing amounts of miles over the next 20 weeks. I started running about 9 days ago. Due to my current fitness level I could only run about 1.5 miles. I've done that twice, ran/walked on the treadmill in the garage for 3 miles twice, and biked for 7 miles last Saturday.

I have a schedule that I found online from Hal Higdon who is a marathon expert. http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/Mar00index.htm I'm doing the Novice I training program which is still ridiculous. The schedule is below although I will be tweaking it a bit to fit my schedule. Sunday's will be an off day for instance.

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	rest	3 m run	3 m run	3 m run	rest	6	cross
2	rest	3 m run	3 m run	3 m run	rest	7	cross
3	rest	3 m run	4 m run	3 m run	rest	5	cross
4	rest	3 m run	4 m run	3 m run	rest	9	cross
5	rest	3 m run	5 m run	3 m run	rest	10	cross
6	rest	3 m run	5 m run	3 m run	rest	7	cross
7	rest	3 m run	6 m run	3 m run	rest	12	cross
8	rest	3 m run	6 m run	3 m run	rest	13	cross
9	rest	3 m run	7 m run	4 m run	rest	10	cross
10	rest	3 m run	7 m run	4 m run	rest	15	cross
11	rest	4 m run	8 m run	4 m run	rest	16	cross
12	rest	4 m run	8 m run	5 m run	rest	12	cross
13	rest	4 m run	9 m run	5 m run	rest	18	cross
14	rest	5 m run	9 m run	5 m run	rest	14	cross
15	rest	5 m run	10 m run	5 m run	rest	20	cross
16	rest	5 m run	8 m run	4 m run	rest	12	cross
17	rest	4 m run	6 m run	3 m run	rest	8	cross
18	rest	3 m run	4 m run	2 m run	rest	rest	race

During my first two runs, I was coughing up all kinds of things. I must have been exploring previously unused portions of my lungs. We'll see if I can actually finish. Joe's goal last year was 4 hours and he got 4:03. My goal: I just want to cross the finish line with someone still behind me. That's motivating. :-)

Ho Ho Ho and stuff...

Well, it worked. I got a Garmin nuvi 650 and was able to find my way to work this morning. Thanks to all those who followed up with my wife and let her know of my Christmas wish. I now have a British man telling me when to turn. :)

We got our two oldest kids electric scooters and they are now the terrors of the neighborhood. On Christmas day we sat around watching movies and eating junk. After working 70 hours a week for 2 months, it was a well needed break.

Speaking of breaks we're headed back to Utah for a week over New-Year's day. We'll get to see a fair chunk of my family and about 15 of the cousins will be in the same place at the same time.

Happy Holidays!

Little Jimmy in Nebraska...

It's nearing Christmas and things are getting crazy around here. I wish people would pace themselves and buy gifts a bit earlier. It's a wild time of year when you're on the fulfillment end of things. I've been working on the floor to help out over the last few weeks. 1-2 hours a day is all, but it's good to feel that I'm doing my part. I've got wounds on my forearms from working in box SLAM. It's the area where we stuff the boxes with bubbles and run them through a taping machine. It's the final step before they're jammed onto a truck and sent to little Jimmy in Nebraska who's parents ordered him the Harry Potter box set.

We got about 1 inch of snow in Fernley today so our Scout hike of 2 miles was called off. People were calling at 7am because the weather looked "treacherous". We've also had problems with people not coming into work on time, or at all due to the weather. It's not like Provo Canyon in January by any stretch, but there are no snow plows to speak of so any type of snow removal is unreliable.

I want a navigation system for my car for Christmas. Nothing fancy, and Amazon's got one for about $150. That may seem like a random comment, but I'm hoping that someone out there will read this and let Jennifer know. I don't want to ask her or anyone else directly. It would still feel like a surprise this way. :) Her cell # is (801)-318-3462. She doesn't read my blog, so I have to rely on someone else to give her the info. This is like my "Letter to Santa" that is addressed to the North Pole. http://www.northpole.com/