Step Away From the Cake

For some reason my profile is all the way down at the bottom. I haven't touched the template at all so I don't know why this happened. But truthfully, today I don't really care. I'll mess with it tomorrow. Last night I could not sleep at all. I really hate that because the one thing I do really, really well is sleep. Anytime, anywhere, for any length of time, I can sleeeeeep. So on the rare occasions when I have trouble sleeping it really bugs me. Anyway, it must have been about 1:00 a.m. when I finally drifted off and I had to get up at 4:45 a.m. to go to marathon training - yeah, that was fun. But it really is true what they say, the sleep you get the night before doesn't matter. I felt great during our run. I had energy and felt loose so it was a really good run. I was tired after I got home but I think that was from lack of sleep not exertion during the run. The weather here has been really crappy lately. It's been overcast and rainy for like 4 days...

The Honolulu marathon was started by a guy named Dr. Jack Scraf. He was a cardiologist and a runner and decided Honolulu needed a marathon. He also wrote one of the first marathon training books because he was convinced anyone could run a marathon ( I have the book, it was written in the 70's and some of the info is laughable). Anyway, he also started the Honolulu Marathon Training clinic. Starting in March this clinic meets at 7:30 every Sunday morning for the long runs. It's free and it's quite good if you've never run a marathon and are motivated to train on your own during the week. Do not ask me why I'm going into all this, it just seemed appropriate.... Meanwhile, back at the ranch..... No so really, Dr Scraf realized in all this marathon stuff that people run into trouble the first 10 miles of a marathon. So awhile back he started the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. This covers the first 10 miles of the marathon coure (not really) and gives you a chance to pra...

For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to get back into the habit of working out in the morning. I go to bed with excellent intentions but usually fail to get up. I have managed to do it a couple of times and I generally try to tell myself how great it is and how good I feel, yada, yada, yada....... But far more times I don't get up and then end up beating myself up a little bit. This morning, again, I tried to get up but ended up hitting that snooze way too often. I then got up, had coffee, and headed out to walk the dogs. It was then it hit me - BANG!!! I do get some exercise every morning!!!! I walk the dogs every single morning!!! I actually take 2 walks because I can't walk all 3 at the same time. Okay, it's not a run or a bike ride, or aerobics, but it is a brisk 30-40 minute walk at sunrise. It's something. So from now on, I do exercise every morning I'm just going to try and add more. Somehow that sounds better..... Hope everyone has a great Thank...

I'm at work trying to run this chemistry test and it's just killing me. I can't figure out the method and it requires tons of thinking and it's the almost a long weekend and I just can't do it. I have to get this test done but I'm really struggling with it. I think I'll just go jump in with both feet and hope for the best. Sorry for the whining......

And I finally feel like I'm ready. After yesterday's awesome run I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Then tonight was my marathon group and we did 1 hour 20 minutes of running and I feel just awesome. I think I'm ready. Bring on 26.2 miles I can take it. Anyway, I'm feeling awesome and plan on cruising the rest of the way to the marathon. La , the marathon starts at 5:00 a.m. and no, the sun is not up at that time. Honolulu marathon prides itself on a number of unique things. It calls itself "The People's Marathon" since there is no time cutoff. They say anyone can do it. People have taken 12 hours to finish this thing and it's perfectly legal. It also claims to be the only marathon that starts in the dark. There's also something about it being the 2nd or 3rd largest marathon with the most Japanese runners or some crazy stuff like that. They have lots of claims to fame and as you stand at the start line they run down them all.. Okay, I...

So my last couple of long runs have not gone well and I was starting to get crazy over it. Earlier this week I totally melted down and was pretty much convinced that this marathon was going to be a big disaster. What? Me, doom and gloom?? NO way!!! Anyway, Saturday was our marathon training group and it was supposed to be our final long run of 3 hours, then we will start tapering. So Friday night I got all my stuff together and was pouring over my old running journals to try and see if they offered any clues to what's going on. I didn't find too much info but I did develop a good solid nutrition/drinking plan. I also was going to try salt tablets for the first time. So I was pretty stoked about this run as it really would be the proving ground for the marathon. I was falling asleep in front of the tv by 8:00p.m. so I decided to go to bed early. I set the alarm for 4:30 a.m. and proceeded to fall dead asleep and not hear a thing until 9:00 a.m. Saturday. Now I never sl...