Myles & Myles

We ran in the 2011 Bearkat Bash 5K on Saturday.  Liz finished in 30:49 and Steve finished in 28:11 (new 5K PR!).

We ran in the 2010 Bearkat Bash 5K this morning.  Liz finished in 30:00 and Steve finished in 30:58.

On Saturday 4/11/09, we ran in the Estates of Clear Creek 5K Fun Run/Walk (which was actually 5.23km, according to the map below, provided by the race coordinator). My coworker Linda lives there and she invited us out for the run. Liz and I finished together in 29:28, making it the fastest 5K(ish) run that either of us has done. We came in 6th and 7th, according to the people keeping time, though they weren’t sure which of us was 6th and which of us was 7th. Aww yeah!

After the race, Linda made pancakes (which were excellent; thanks again, Linda!).

Here’s the race route.

This morning, we ran in the Klein High School Bearkat Bash for the third year. I finished in 30:21 and Liz finished in 30:27; both of us improved quite a bit over last year’s time of 31:43. And now we have new personal records!

Also, due to the fact that my birthday is on Tuesday, I managed to “win” first place in my age group (I wouldn’t have placed if I were in the 30-34 age group, but I’m still 29 for the next three days). Technically, the overall winner (who finished in 15 minutes and change) is in my age group, too, but they don’t allow duplication of awards. And to be fair, he and I were the only male participants in the 25-29 age group. But it’s still a major award and I won, to paraphrase “The Old Man” from A Christmas Story.

Here I am with my first place finisher award:

all pictures

This week, we really started training. We’re using The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer by David A. Whitsett, Forrest A. Dolgener, and Tanjala Jo Kole.

The 16-week program consists of four runs per week, two of them the same distance (Days 1 and 3) and the other two being longer (Day 2 is a longer run than Days 1 and 3, and Day 4 is the longest of all). The “long” run distances increase each week, and the other days’ distances increase periodically as well. The most that the plan ever has you run in a single day (until the marathon) is 18 miles, but the total that week is about 35 miles. The book recommends taking off the days before and after Day 4, so we’re going to do the long runs on Sunday and take off Saturday and Monday (with the exception of this week, since we started on Monday). Most weeks, we plan to run on Tuesday (Day 1), Thursday (Day 2), Friday (Day 3), and Sunday (Day 4).

Week 1 is 15 miles, total. Monday 9/17 we ran 3 miles, then 4 on Tuesday. Four miles is disproportionately harder to run than three. Today, we’re going to run in the Marathon Kickoff 5k that I mentioned previously, so that’ll be Day 3. Then it’s 5 miles on Sunday.

So far, so good. Time for some new shoes.