Workout? Why not?!

So, after reaching the 60 mile mark last week, I decided to hit the track and try out my new pair of Lunar Racers (They were new, because I haven't raced or run hard in over a year). Anyways, 8.0 was doing 14 x $.25 on the track and didn't want to be the only loser out their alone at 7:00am Tuesday morning, so I said sure.  I wasn't going to do quarters, of course, but I made up a workout I had been wanting to do a variation of for a few weeks, if I thought I could do it.  I did a 2 mile warm up, then hit the track for 3 x 2k with $.25 jog.  My goal was to run 5:30 pace and see what happened.  It actually went very well, I split 5:29 for my first one, and went on to run 6:50.  My next one was a bit slower, 5:30 split and 6:53.  I closed well with a 5:23 split to finish up in 6:45 for my last one.  Then I jogged a mile with 8.0 and called it a morning.

Now, I know that might not sound like a brilliant workout to some (any) of you, but to me, it was as good as anything I used to be able to do on the track.  It was good to get that burning in the lungs back.  Not to mention my stomach was upset with me all day, which sucked, but was also rewarding in its own sense of accomplishment.  

That evening, after work, and before judging a talent show (more on that in a bit) I got in another 22 minutes, to give me 10 miles on the day, and 17 for the (2 day old) week.  Sick, slowly (literally) but surely (hopefully) I'm getting back in shape.

So, for those of you who don't know where I am or what I'm doing at the moment, I am currently working with the XC Truck in Asheville NC at a Nike XC camp.  Last night I got to be a judge for a battle of the sex's contest, which included a game of props, a synchronized dance routine, and a pick up line contest, which included a couple I might have to save for a rainy day (You must be from Best Buy, because you turned my software into hardware!).  Also, I was not judging this contest as myself, but rather as track and field coaching legend, Roy Benson, who was kind enough to let me borrow his hat, and his Pretty Good Joke Book, with classics like 

"Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon?"

"The food is pretty good, but it has no atmosphere."

That just happened.

Moral of the story, my senior year theater experience back in High School paid off, and I've still got it.  Anyways, I took this AM off from running to grab a few extra Zzz's, so I'm off to get in a solid 10 or so in a few.  I think I'm going to keep making Tuesday my track workout day, so long as it works out with my schedule, so if anyone has any recommendations for some workouts I might like, let me know!

The big 6 0

So, I know I said I wasn't going to pull this whole 20 day off in between posts thing anymore, but, well, I lied.  I'm currently residing at UNC Asheville, in lovely Asheville North Carolina.  I would say I'm back on the road for work, but that would imply I was ever off of it.  Anyways, I've been running a bit this week, and with my 89 minute long run this morning, I officially broke 60 miles for the first time in a while.  Like, a long while.  I've been lucky enough to do most of my running this week with Jason "8.0" Knight, Brian "Gov" McGovern and Kevin "No nickname yet" Starkes. Needless to say, we have been running a decent amount, by my standards, and I've been starting to feel it.  This week has been crazy, lots of work, lots of running, and lots of failing to sleep on dorm beds.  Freshman year?  Oh wait, I said lots of work, never mind.

Anyways, my new old job is pretty sweet.  I'm doing Gait analysis and Nike iD for High School runners.  Right now I'm going all over the east coast to different camps. In about 2 months i'll be visiting high schools and going to meets promoting NXN and just generally doing my thing. Sick.

Running has been going great.  The camps have been sweet, so far, and are really helping me get my run on.  I've lost 30ish pounds since February, so clearly I'm doing something right.  Most runs I keep the tempo around 6:45 pace, and I do about an hour a day, though some days, with the kids schedules, it differs.  Next week I even think I'm going to get on the track and do some 1k repeats at tempo pace.  Mostly because I'm not sure if I can do a tempo at tempo pace.  My best/worst run from this last week came when Gov took us on these trails at the North Carolina Arboretum.  We ran for about 67 minutes, and we were looping around when Gov goes "I think if we take this left it will take us back to the top of that last hill and we can coast down the last few miles.  It should be uphill right at the beginning, but then it will level off."  10 minutes of 10% incline later, I was totally redlining while watching the other guys pull away.  You know the scene in Titanic where Leo's body just sinks into the ocean?  It was like that, except more painful and tragic.  Moral of the story, I'm getting back in shape, but I have a long ways to go.  

On a related note, having a watch with an altimeter is sweet, unless you look at it in the middle of a run and realize you have climbed over 1000ft and that you are now high enough to where you should start noticing the effects of that height.  We were climbing one hill in particular and once I looked at my watch and saw how high we were, I actually started to feel worse, but not until I looked at it.  So now my brain is working against me too.  Great, first my body, now my mind.  Anyways, I'll try to keep updating my blog a little bit more often, maybe once or twice a week, but I make no promises.  

A Dangerous Addiction

Friends, I have something to confess with you.  Something I need help with.  I am addicted to facebook quiz's.  There, I said it.  The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, and trust me, I have a lot of problems, and this is most definitely one of them.  Another one is that I'm too good looking, but thats another story (Hey Oh!).  No, but really, instead of blogging for the last like 2 hours I discovered what song of 2009 I was (Solja Boi, Kiss me through the phone), what periodic table element I am (Gold, of course), what Hogwarts Teacher I am (Madame Pomfrey, or however the hell you spell it).  I agree with the last two but apparently Facebook doesn't have a 100% accuracy rate.  

I have also discovered that I should live in NJ (false), visit mid century New York (sure), and drink Guinness (though it didn't mention in excess, I guess that is left up to my interpretation). Moral of the story, I need to get back in shape.  Why, might you ask?  Because, if I don't get back into shape, I am just sad fat dude who sits around taking facebook quiz's.  If I'm in shape, then whatever, at least I'm in shape, right?

I was going to talk a bit about some of my thoughts on the death of Michael Jackson, but I realized I didn't have anything nice to say.  So, onto my running for the last few weeks.  I haven't been doing much, I'll be honest.  I have run for the last half a week pretty consistently, but I was right in my last post when I said I would be supper busy and most likely miss a step in my training.  Anyways, I had a ton of work, got a new job, got to hang out with Becky for the first time in too long and drove to St. Louis from Antioch, Il (which is as boring as you would guess).  Anyways, I'm back in the game again, and feeling alright most days.  Also, I was in a hotel with a scale the other day, and it seems Big Mo's days might be numbered, I've lost almost 30 pounds in the last 6 months, so thats good.  The bad thing is, that I was so big to begin with, I still have a ways to go.  So don't worry Ben, you can still make fun of me for a while.  

Side note about Ben Stern, I heard you were going to jump in the Philly marathon and kick my ass?  Several things wrong with this chain of events:

1st)  Didn't I tell you to do that?  I thought I was the one encouraging you to do that exact thing.

2nd)  Don't think you're being sneaky, I saw you wearing you Nadal headband last time I was in town, I knew it was game time for something or another.

3rd)  I would hope you could beat me, my nickname is Big Mo.

4th)  If you don't beat me, that would actually be more embarrassing for you, then  it will be for me if you do beat me.  So I have nothing to lose.

Even with those points, here are my reasons, also in list form, for why you wont beat me.

1st)  I might not run the race.

2nd)  If I do run the race, I might enter under a false name, then you can never prove you beat me, and with no proof, it didn't happen.

3rd)  Before the race, I will either poison you, change your alarm so you miss the start, lock you in and or to a closet/room/car trunk/subway car/homeless person's box/telephone booth/Rocky/your brother/one of the girls you train with/Tushar's blog/Jacob/undersea cave/Hogwarts/my back/a copy of Sohachi Yamaoka's Tokugawa Ieyasu/an anvil/Ron Jeremy or something along those lines.  

4th) You will forget and not enter the race.

I feel I've proved my point.