Outback Half Marathon

Thanksgiving weekend was a busy one for us. We got up early in the morning and participated in a Half marathon (13.1 Miles) It was Tami's first and my second. I set a new pr of 2:23:53 A 30 minute improvement over my last half I did back in February. I was really happy with my time and also how much I have improved. After finishing the race we walked home and covered another 3.8 miles. This got us our 17 miles we needed for our training. We are training for a full marathon next February 21, 2010. On Saturday we went and ran at the Jacksonville Running Company. I ran 6.83 miles. This morning Tami and I went and meet Darcy & Marilyn and went to a spinning class and then went and swam 1,000 yards in the pool.

We had my Family over for dinner on Thanksgiving and we also had my Mom come over for dinner tonight. Overall a great holiday filled with lots of training and family and friends.

Life is good!!!!

6/100 days running

Tonight was the monthly Artwalk downtown. Samantha, Ethan and I walked around downtown for 2.5 hours. I estimate that we walked about 2.5 miles. not a very fast pace but we did put in some distance. And as you can see from the picture we walked over the Main Street Bridge. It was a little dark for the picture but we took it anyway. The Acosta bridge is in the background and the sun is setting. I love walking or running downtown along the river. Doing it with my family is even better.

Dinner and flat tire

Tonight Tami and I decided to ride our bikes to dinner. We decided to go to Tijuana Flats. We rode at an nice easy pace because we didn't want to arrive at dinner all hot and sweaty. Since it was only 2 miles it only took us about 10 minutes. It was getting dark as we left the restaurant so we took a different route home. We rode through the neighborhoods and then had less then a mile on the sidewalk. Tami hit one of those utility box covers that was sunk down in the sidewalk and that was all it took. Since we were less then a 1/2 mile from home we got off and walked the bikes. It will be easier to change the tire in my workshop then on the side of the rode in the dark. Plus why do today what you can put off till tomorrow :-p Just kidding. But it will be easier to change the tire at home. Tami will be changing her own tire so she can learn how to do that.

Tami and I take a walk

So the other night Tami and I decide to take a nice stroll along the river. I am thinking we will walk 2 miles down around the fountain and back. Well, we get to the Main Street bridge and Tami asks if I want to walk over the bridge? Of course I say "Yes". So now we are going to walk down to Yates YMCA we just doubled the distance of our walk. We get down to the YMCA and Tami asks if I want to walk over the Acosta bridge, "I say sure no problem". We even threw in some running to make it interesting. The picture above is about 3 miles into our little walk. I used my iphone to take it. I like having the fountain in the background. We had to stand under a light so we would have enough light for the picture. Of course this makes us look terrible. But we were having a nice evening. The breeze was blowing the temperature was pleasant and the moon was rising. This is one of my favorite places in the city for taking a walk or even running. I think the money the city spent on the River walk was some of the best money they ever spent. So Tami and I ended up walking 4.5 miles

Walking on the beach

Tonight Tami and I drove to the beach and went to dinner and then we decided to go for a walk on the beach. The breeze was blowing onshore about 15 knots and the temps were down, it was quite pleasant. We enjoy walking on the beach as the sun is setting. Tonight the water was up very high so there wasn't much beach. We started at 16th Ave. South and walked down south down the beach. We walked down to the pilings in Ponte Vedra. I used the gps in my Iphone to map my location and put in 16th Avenue to find out we were 3.3 miles from the car. The tide had come up even further and we were walking in the soft sand and water the whole way back. So we ended up walking 6.6 mile this evening. It made for a very nice walk. Plenty of time to talk and just enjoy each others company. We do enjoy walking on the beach and just hanging out by the ocean.

Jax Tri series #1

Today was the Jax tri series it was very hot today. 1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike ride, 3.1 mile run. It was supposed to hit 100 degrees. The race went good. The ocean had a small swell to it nothing bad and very easy to get through. I passed some guy at one point who was doing the back stroke and he cut in front of me and proceeded to make a circle. When I looked back he was heading the wrong direction. The first transition went well I was on my bike pretty quick. The ride was nice I passed a lot of people on the ride and only had 3 people pass me, and I passed one of those back. The run is my worst of the 3 sports and today was no exception. I rode hard and paid for it at the beginning of the run. I had to take many walk breaks. There was very little breeze and the sun was out in full force. Many of the people I passed on the ride passed me back on the run. I expected this to happen but you still hate to see it. I am going to practice my running more. For me these races are more about the training and getting in shape then they are about race results. The race was 3 miles shorter on the bike then my first and I beat my time by almost 30 minutes. The ocean was also a lot calmer so my swim was faster as well. It is hard to compare the 2 races different courses and different conditions but I was happy with my results and will keep training and pushing myself a little harder each time. I will keep trying a I am in way better shape then this point last year.

Twenty-nine

Day 29

Today started out with rain and ended up clearing. It was still partly cloudy but we are past the rain. Now we have cold weather coming.  We went to dinner at Gino's pizza tonight. They have really good pizza. They brought out some dough, sauce and cheese and let the kids make their own pizzas. Tonight Miles and I went for a walk. We did 3 miles in the neighborhood. 

Twenty-two

Day 22

Miles and I thought we would go for a walk this evening. After putting on all my warm workout clothes. We proceeded to go for a walk. We covered 3 miles in about an hour. Not a very fast pace but it got the job done. I also ran 4 miles this morning so I was happy to get in the extra miles. Today I watched a movie called Running the Sahara. It is a story about 3 runners who run across the Sahara desert. They cover about 4500 miles in 111 days. They average the same distance as 2 marathons each day (50 Miles) The scenery is beautiful and the scale of what they did is amazing. 

Eleven

Day 11

Tami and I and Miles went for a walk/run last night. We ended up doing our 3 mile loop through the neighborhood. At around the 2 mile mark we saw some lightning and it started to mist lightly. We decided to carry on. At about 2 1/4 miles it started to rain harder. We started running and the rain kept getting harder the closer we got to the house. The temperature was quite nice. By the time we got home we were all quite wet. 
This is where the shoes spent the night. The fan was blowing on them all night. They were dry by the morning. I am still working on this weekends laundry along with the wet clothes and towels. Rain during the winter in Florida typical means cooler weather. It will warm up nicely and then rain and then it will be cold for a few days. The rain is good but I sure like the warmer temperatures.

Walking with my Wife

Tonight Tami and I went out for a walk. Samantha and Miles started out with us. They walked the first 2 miles and then we dropped them off at the house. Tami set a fairly fast pace. She has always been able to walk faster then me :-) But thanks to all my running lately I was able to keep up with her. After we dropped Samantha at home we walked about another 2 miles I am thinking we walked about 4 miles this evening. It was very nice walking and talking with her, this is something we are going to start doing on a regular basis. It was nice walking at night and seeing the Christmas lights on the houses in the neighborhood.