Our Lives

11/24/2009 Day 24:

Last night we ran 4 miles in the dark. This has become the general theme as we do not get home until around 6pm every night. It does make running harder in my opinion at times because the dark and chilly really does not beckon quite as invitingly as the warm comfy nest in the corner of our sectional. We decided to run a route we had ran a couple times but this time we did it in reverse. Much to our chagrin, this reverse route offered more uphill grade than downhill. Hills not withstanding, we managed to complete our 4 mile run however we ran into a bit of a comedic situation during the last 1/4 of a mile.

As Veronica and I both were picking up speed to make our last quarter mile a challenge we rounded the corner that lead to our street. Almost instantly there was a little black dog running toward us and barking it’s little heart out. Soon after you could hear the owner yelling, “Michael! MICHAEL! Get back here! You’re not listening to me!”. The scariest part of this situation was definitely not the dog, but the fact that a car was coming up the street as Michael wandered across the street to make sure Veronica and I didn’t get on his territory.  The car stopped and the owner managed to wrangle up his chihuahua/terrier terror and head back to his house. At this point we resumed our run.  One would think that this would be the end of such interaction between man and beast. You would be incorrect in that thought process. No sooner did we get 2 houses past Michael’s territory when Michael came running and barking at us again.  So again we stop and I help the pet owner (or should I say the pet follower) get his dog under his possession. (At this point I don’t understand why this guy didn’t enter his house with his dog in hand and shut the door before putting the dog down). Finally we could finish our run!  Upon completion of this 4 mile stint our totals are:

Sean: 16 miles Veronica: 24 miles

While not what were were shooting for at the beginning of this challenge, it is still great progress and an enjoyable goal to strive toward. We have 6 days left this month and plan on getting as many miles as we can to finish strong!

Sean

11/19/2009 Day 19:

3 cold miles completed! Sean and I ran our 3 miles outside yesterday after work. The temperature was around 40 degrees but the darkness made it feel a little colder. We bought cold weather under layers a few weeks ago and man, do they work! They wicked all the moisture away and we were comfortabley warm during most of the run. We kept out pace pretty slow, and it turned out to be a pretty low key run. We enjoyed ourselves!

11/18/2009 Day 18:

As per our half marathon training, Sean and I did 5 400′s last night at the gym. Neither of us are huge fans of running around a track – this one takes 8 laps for a mile. Painful! However, we mixed it up and it wasn’t so bad. We did a 4 lap (0.5 mile) warm up then alternated running 2 laps at a speedy (for me) pace and then walking one lap. We finished with another 4 laps to cool down. It was a pretty great little workout and not super boring! We were one lap shy of 3 miles!

11/17/2009 Day 17:

This challenge has definitely not gone according to plan.  Soon after our first day of the challenge, Veronica and I both got sick. I had a cold/flu and was out of commission for nearly 2 weeks when all was said and done. Veronica also got sick and we have just recently gotten back into feeling well enough to begin working out and running again.

In light of the set backs, we are going to continue our own personal P.O.t.M. challenge through the month of December as well. Hopefully we’ll soon get back into a good schedule of running and/or working out which will coincide with our 1/2 marathon training.

11/1/2009 Day 1:

Today was the first day of our Pile on the Miles challenge and it was definitely off to good start. We managed to run 8 sets of 5:1 intervals. We ran for five minutes and walked for one. We did this 8 times and ended up around 4.75 miles.

10/27/2009

We are embarking on a new goal this November. It is called the “Pile on the Miles” challenge and you can read about it at N Her Shoes and Healthy Tipping Point. The jist is between November 1st through Thanksgiving, instead of eating so much food during the holidays and gaining weight, we are to keep track of how many miles we run/walk in this time period.

This is the first year we are trying this and our goal is 75miles each in this time frame. This seems like a reasonable goal that will allow us to have some days of rest as well as to incorporate some longer runs. On this page you’ll be able follow our progress as we will attempt to keep track and upload where we ran and how well we did.