Sweet Home Chicago

I am hours away from hopping in Kell's bro Kyle's truck and hitting the road to Chi-town for the holidays. We'll be back home through Christmas and New Years and it's hard to describe how much we're looking forward to the visit. Kell hasn't been home since early July and I haven't been since late July when the Jays were in town (also when I snapped the above photo from the upper level at Sox Park).

But, even though we'll be home for Christmas cookies, Chicago pizza and other highly-anticipated foods from back home, my running program will go on. As I wrote last time, I altered my routine some this week. I'm already at the most miles in one week since I've started this winter and I have two days remaining.

On Monday, I ran 4 miles, added another 5 apiece on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then ran a one-mile cool down after 11 miles (30 minutes) on a stationary bike on Thursday. Today, Friday, I ran at a decent clip for 120 laps around the track, good for eight miles. I even had enough leftover at the end to build up to a full out sprint in the final mile.

So, that gives me 23 miles for the week, besting my previous weekly high of 21 -- set two weeks ago when I completed the 10-mile treadmill adventure. My plan is to up it to 30 miles by week's end, so that can be any combination of, say, 2 miles tomorrow as an easy day and 5 on Sunday. Or 3 and 4, or whatever. I think my goal from now on is to do 25-35 miles a week.

There's no reason I should limit myself to just 3 miles anymore when I can do that in my sleep. I think 4 miles should be my absolute minimum for regular tempo run days. Obviously, on days I need a break, I can do 1 or 2 miles or just stick to the bike or weight room. I mixed in abdominal work and some upper body lifting between my runs this week, too. I've been sore in the morning, but feeling fine in the evenings, which is when I work out.

Anyway, enough with the boring mileage talk. I have to finish getting ready for the trip home. I just feel like hopping on here and logging my every move and progress helps keep me accountable. I've had a few slip-ups here and there this winter, which I can't afford to have as I get closer to my goal. It's real easy to use the long timeframe as an excuse to back off.

Earlier this week, I was even talking to Jays manager John Gibbons (he's real easy to chat with before and after you actually do the whole interviewing/work thing) and he was asking how my workouts had been going. He said he ran a half-marathon a few years back in Austin, Texas. I told him to keep me in check during the baseball season now that he knows what I'm working toward.

I'll close this entry with another quote, this one lifted from a Runner's World magazine I picked up recently. This might be my new favorite quote - in relation to running or anything in life. I'm big on the mental aspects of life, honing in on that side of things to help you get through tough situations.

"If you are going to win any battle, you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do." --General George Patton

Merry Christmas everyone.

My horse done ran off...

...which made it hard to get back on. Yeah, I'm fessing up to a poor showing on the running front this week. In fact, it was exactly the worst running week I've had since the baseball season ended. Even when I took five days off a few weeks ago, I managed to log 14 miles on the weekend.

This week, I started off fine with four miles on Monday, but then things got out of hand. I took my normal off day on Tuesday (when I had a company Christmas party in New York) and Wednesday I got sidetracked with baseball's tender deadline. I was waiting up late, past midnight, to find out one of the Jays pitchers was let go. On Thursday, and carrying over into Friday, I was swamped after the Mitchell Report came out.

Making matters worse, the Jays signed a pair of players on the Friday, and I wound up writing three stories that day. My excuse on Saturday? Well, I have four assignments due on Monday and I used Saturday as a work day. That's my long run day. Yeah, didn't happen. I did, however, come across a motivational link on the Runner's World Web site.

Lame as it sounds, this article convinced me to salvage my week with a run on Sunday -- not to start over on Monday. So, I squeezed in a seven-mile run tonight (five on the treadmill in 40 minutes flat and two on the track). I had looked up a 10-mile route outside, but God sent a crazy snow storm swirling over Toronto. So that put the kaybosh on any outside activities.

The weather, combined with my constantly fighting boredom while running hamster-style at the gym, has made me start to rethink my current program. I've been building up distances and increasing my long runs each week. That's all well and good, but the fact of the matter is the marathon I plan on running isn't until October.

So, I'm thinking of going back to logging 3-7 miles a day maybe six days a week. I can start with a easy three-miler early in the week and gradually build up to 5-7 miles by the end of the week with a recovery day or two, if I need it, in the middle. That'd put me at 20-plus miles a week, which would be a solid average, and would be very doable indoors. Any more than seven miles on a treadmill and I start going stir crazy.

I don't think this will be too bad, considering I'll be heading down to Florida in mid-February. So, I can log a consistent amount of miles until I leave for warmer weather, and then start building up the long runs again during Spring Training. I'd like to run outdoors, but Toronto is not playing along.

I also weighed myself following my run tonight and I was at 160 even. So, I took a week off, basically, had a beer or seven at the Christmas party in the Big Apple, ate a pizza this week, had homemade tacos, and sat in front of a laptop for hours on end, and I lost weight?! Hmmm, maybe I should stick to this new beer-and-pizza weight-loss plan. Ha. Maybe it was all that Wii I played this week during work breaks.

I also am lame and receive daily quotes from Runner's World. One I've liked so far and saved is this one: "Any idiot can train himself into the ground; the trick is working in training to get gradually stronger." Amen.

Not a perfect 10

No, but I put 10 miles in the books today, nonetheless. For my first 10-mile run ever, I guess it wasn't too bad, though I know I'll improve as I get used to longer distances. I also did the whole thing on a treadmill, which wasn't exactly a blast.

The longest I ever ran during high school cross country season was eight miles, if I'm remembering correctly. This past spring, when I was in Florida for spring training, I logged a nine-mile run one night. This winter, eight miles was the longest I had run, and that was last week.

This week I was down for 10 as my long run on Saturday, and I wasn't sure if I'd get it in -- mainly because I was at baseball's Winter Meetings in Nashville from Sunday-Friday. During the meetings, a lot of the time is spent standing around, writing, schmoozing, boozing and grubbing it up.

My schedule was supposed to be 3 miles on Monday, rest, 5 miles on Wednesday, 3 on Thursday, rest and then 10 on Saturday. I got the first run in no problem in the morning, but morning runs were hard to get in from there on out. Wednesday I didn't get the run in, but I did 10 miles on a bike.

My schedule got out of whack because of a late-night out on Wednesday. No problem, I adjusted my sked and got 5 miles in on Thursday night and 3 miles (done in 21:18) after I got back to Toronto on Friday night. I was proud of myself on Tuesday. I declined beers out at dinner, stuck with pop, and made it to the gym before I went to bed. I took some abuse for not drinking, but I can handle it.

So, I was worried about the 10 miles I had to get in today, considering I didn't have a recovery day the day before. I got 5 miles in no problem and then started hurting somewhat (mainly my feet, which are getting hit with some wear and tear). But I stopped for a couple water breaks between miles 5 and 10 and was able to do the final mile in around 7:30. So I had some gas leftover at the end.

I finished in 85 minutes flat, so 8:30 on average for each mile. For a marathon, that pace would come to about 3 hours and 42 minutes I think. So, I'm confident I can complete the marathon in October in under 4 hours. If I could break 3:30, I'd be really pleased, but we'll see if that's too lofty a goal. I have plenty of time to work on building up my endurance and shaving off the minutes.

After finishing, though, I realized the extent of the task I'm taking on. My feet, legs, abs, back and mind were drained after just 10 miles. That's not even half of what I have coming. Next week I build up to 11 miles on my long run day, with long runs of 12 and 14 in the following weeks. After 7 weeks this winter, I've logged 124 miles in 45 days. To think some elite runners do that much in a week!