A battle for the ages!!!!

What happens when two super powers collide? find out here!

It has been almost two weeks

since I posted anything here. I have been running. Not as much as I would like to but I am still getting in some miles. I ran about 4 1/2 miles tonight. The windchill made the temp 26 degrees, still no match for my beard. I bought a pair of Pearl Isumi arm warmers to wear with my technical t-shirt which has been good so far. Tonight I added a wind breaker. I felt like I had a good pace going throughout the run. Looking forward to getting in some solid mileage this weekend.

Anneliese is getting excited about Christmas, every night we count down the days by removing a link from the Advent chain that she made at school. Here she is next to the stockings that Liz made for the girls (and lucy)



Emmeline is crawling and we have proof



Standing tall

This past week...

So far this week I have completed 2 40 minute treadmill workouts. I hope to get in 40 minutes of running outside today and a 10 miler tomorrow. At my weigh in yesterday I came in at 179. Another step closer to my race day Indianapolis Minimarathon weight goal of 165.

Speaking of the Mini, the half-marathon is now sold out.

If running isn't your thing, you can always experience a different kind of marathon...



I picked up a six pack of this Greek Lager at World Market. Not bad.

And the fam:

Anneliese the pilgrim



Dueling pianists



Putting up the Christmas tree







Anneliese on ice

Happy Thanksgiving...

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I ate more than I should have just like I do every year but it gives me more incentive to get outside and work hard in training. Here's the weeks recap:





Tuesday, 3 miles at a light, steady pace.


Thursday, 5k (3.1 miles) at race pace, finished the run in 23:34, first mile was around 7:15.


Friday, 5k, ran the same course as the day before but in the opposite direction. Recovery run at about 9 minutes per mile. It was a little colder than I thought and I had the first hint of frost in my beard during a run for the season.





Measuring a run can be done by driving the route, using a GPS watch like Garmin, or software that is available on the web (usatf.org or favoriterun.com offer this software for free). The most accurate way to measure, and the way it is done for certified races is using a bicycle wheel. For training any of the other's are fine but may be off by 1-2%.

Training run for Friday

Went out for a 6 mile run on my lunch break today. The temp was a nice crisp 38 degrees. I had a nice even effort throughout the rolling course. When I got back to the office I did 10 minutes of stretching and some upper body work (I have been nursing an injured shoulder for about 3 weeks and can just now start upper body strength training again). I was supposed to actually do this run yesterday but my schedule was too hectic. Tomorrow as part of my run I will do 5.5 miles in honor of Ryan Shay as part of the nation wide 11/17 tribute to the fallen runner http://completerunning.com/archives/2007/11/07/ryan-shay-55-mile-memorial-run-in-your-hometown-saturday-november-17/print/.

Happy Birthday Emmeline!

today is Emmeline's 6 month birthday. She had a great trip to the doc yesterday for a check-up (poor thing did get 4 shots though). Her weigh in was at 15 lbs 14oz. She is sitting up like a big girl and gets in a crawling position then lunges herself forward. Here is a recent upclose of her:



and a look back at the new born:

Minimarathon is now 75% full and will likely sell out around Thanksgiving...

if you are planning to run the 500 Festival Minimarathon in May then you will need to register soon. Visit http://www.500festival.com and click on Minimarathon to register today!

My new PB and US Marathon Trials

On Friday I ran a 4 mile route. For the past two years I have raced the "Jump the Gun" 4 miler. This year Liz is at U of Evansville homecoming so I am skipping that race. To keep the 4 miler tradion alive I decided to run it on Friday night. I set out at 8:30 with temps dropping slightly into the 40's. The sky was clear and full of stars. I felt stronger than usual for the first mule and shaved a minute off of my norm. The extra energy carried me all the way through to a 31:44 personal best (PB).

Trials results...

Top 3 qualify for 08 Olympics. 4-5 will serve as alternates:
1. Hall, Ryan, 2:09:02 New Trials Record
2. Ritzenhein, Dathan, 2:11:07
3. Sell, Brian, 2:11:40
4. Khannouchi, Khalid, 2:12:34
5. Lehmkuhle, Jason, 2:12:54
6. Browne, Daniel, 2:13:23
7. Jenkins, Nathaniel, 2:14:56
8. Keflezighi, Meb, 2:15:09
9. Rohatinsky, Josh, 2:15:22
10. Hartmann, Jason, 2:15:27

Noted DNF's (did not finish) Culpepper, Abdiraham, Gilmore

Tragically, 28 yr old Notre Dame grad Ryan Shay collapsed after mile5 and was pronounced dead shortly after. http://www.thefinalsprint.com/2007/11/ryan-shay-tragically-passes-away-while-competing-in-olympic-trials-marathon-07/#more-5092My prayers are with his new bride Alicia and their family and friends.

"I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith."
2 Timothy 4:7

Lots to cover

First...Men's Marathon US Olympic Trials are scheduled for Saturday at 7:30 am. Runners will start on 5th Ave in NYC and run to Central Park where they will do 5 laps around the park and finish at Tavern on the Green. You can watch the entire race live for free at nbcsports.com. There are 134 men registered to compete for 3 positions on next years Olympic team. About 7-10 are legitimate contenders. I like Meb, Ryan Hall, and Brian Sell to fill the spots but Abdi Abdiraham, Alan Culpepper, Dathan Ritzheim and Dan Browne will also contend. Culpepper won the trials last time around and Ryan Shay (also registered) the time before that. Should be a great race with the winner posting a time between 2:08 and 2:11. All finishers will probably be finished by 10am.

Next...as promised, here are the Baptism pictures:

Emmeline with her mommy


Emmeline with her daddy


our family


Emmeline with her Godmother, my cousin Brenda


And finally, this is the Happy Halloween entry so here are the girls:

Introducing Big Weez-The Meanest Pirate of All the Seas!


Trick or Treat

Training Log, Oct 28

I planned to do a 1 hr 15 minute run today followed by stretching and yoga...My training schedule has been off by a day this week. I started my run at Cool Creek park and set out for the Monon trail. I felt really strong as I got started at 4PM (after the early NFL games- Go Colts, Bengal who?). The weather was about perfect for a run, sunny and 55 degrees. I followed the Monon trail down to Carmel's new town center area and then back to Cool Creek for a lap around the 1 mile loop that has 2 decent inclines and finished in 82 minutes. My run went a little better than expected and I handled the hills well. This was my longest run since the Mini half-marathon in May. I followed up the run with some stretching and yoga as mentioned above. Yoga has been great for my conditioning...Check out Rodney Yee
to get started with yoga or find a program for the sport that you play.

****************************
I promise to post pictures from Emmeline's baptism this week.

Trinity Free CLinic 5K Race Report

My alarm went off at 6:45 this morning to start getting the crew ready for the Trinity Free Clinic 5K race. I hit the snooze button then rolled out of bed about 8 minutes later. Liz and Emmeline opted not to race today, we'll just say it was because of the cold and not the early hour. And cold it was! The temp on the dashboard in our card read 41 degrees and the windows were frosted up.

I unloaded the stroller that was in the car and switched it out for the Babyjogger stroller. The stroller collapses and opens easier than any other I have encountered. For anyone interested in one I give two thumbs up.

Next I loaded Anneliese in her seat. This was to be her first 5K riding in the stroller. She wore her running shoes, jeans, her NYC hoodie and her coat. I wore my racing shorts a sleeveless tech shirt and a long sleeve t-shirt that I would discard before the race. Oh, and my Mizuno running shoes.

We checked in for the race at 8:15 with the start scheduled for 9:00. The nwe took advantage of the heat in the gym of the church where the race was held. At 8:45 we went out to take our warm up lap. I gave my gloves to Anneliese since I couldn't find hers before we left. We circled the building once and lined up for the start. I shed the long sleeved tee and we were ready to go.

This race was very family oriented. There were children and adults of all ages. Many of the children lined up on the starting line. Something that you don't often see in the more competitive 5k and 10k races I have run. I started back about 3/4 of the way since I was pushing a stroller and figured I would either work my way through the crowd or stay out of people's way. It was a work my way through the crowd kind of day. By about the first half mile most of the kids who started up front were walking and many of the adults who started in front of me were slowing up a bit. Anneliese and I bounced ot the outside and made our move until we caught up with 3-4 people who had a similar pace and settled in with them.

There was a gentleman running with his dog that was at about the same pace as us. Turns out that he is the priest of the church that hosted the race. I determined that because everyone seemd to know him and his dog and well they kept calling him "father."

We ran the course at a steady pace. I felt like I could have really pushed it harder the last 1/2 mile of the race but I didn't feel right about passing 5-10 people at that stage of the race considering I was pushing the stroller. Our final time ended up being right around 26:00. I was fine with that time and Anneliese really enjoyed the race.

We headed back into the gym after the race for some refreshments. A sip or two of water and I grabbed an apple and a cookie. I asked Anneliese which she wanted. She actually chose and ate the apple :) She usually eats apple slices so this was the first time she ate a whole apple. I did my stretches (and through in a few extra moves I have picked up doing yoga).

The director of the race stopped by and said hello. I had emailed him earlier in the week to see if strollers were ok. He asked if I was the guy he exchanged emails with and I acknowledged. We had a nice chat and he suggested I stick around for the post race raffle.

I rarely do stick around for awards or raffles. But this time I did. And wow did they have some nice prizes from airline tickets, to iPods, hotel stays, and nice gift certificates. While I did not win I am glad I stuck around in case I had. The prizes were only awarded to people who attended the drawing so atleast a dozen people lost out on the afore mentioned prizes. I may start sticking around more often. Who knows, maybe I would have won some stuff before.

Thanks for reading, until next time.

THE PLAN...

So I have officially signed up for the '08 Indianapolis 500 Mini-Marathon (13.1 mile half-marathon). This will be the third straight year that I participate barring injury. I have the lofty personal goal of getting down to 165 pounds by race day. I need to lose about 20 pounds to achieve that goal. And now we are facing falling temps which traditionally lead to gaining weight for me. To buck the trend I have come up with a plan for pre-training this winter. Starting next week I will be following this regimen:

Daily: 150 sit ups, 30 push-ups done once in the morning and once in the evening

M-W-F: pushing stacks: 40 minutes of nautilus training for core muscle groups, 20 minutes cardio on the eliptical

T-H-SAT: Morning running continuing to use the FIRST training philosophy from previous posts (sorry I am too lazy to link to the previous post or the website for the program). T will be a speed workout of some sort, probably intervals on the treadmill as the weather get's less inviting to run outside. H will be a 45 minute tempo run, outside until it is too cold. And the weekend will be a long run. Long runs are done outside regardless of temp or percipitation. I love to run in fresh snow...I like to see the looks on peoples faces as I run past them (they being in their cars of course) on days when it is 10 degrees outside with a negative wind chill temp. Evening yoga. Yoga is Anneliese's second favorite movie after the Madeline series :)

SUN- Football on tv, I may just take some time to rest. What the heck is the matter with the Bengals?


CORPORATE CHALLENGE...

After a summer of training on the track I thought I would put my effort on the line in the Corporate Challenge Sprint Medley. The race consisted of four legs run by three males and a woman. The distances were set out like 400M-200M-200M-400M. I originally planned to do a 200M leg of the race but in the end did the lead off 400M leg. Our team finished in 0:3:23.8 which was good enough for 22 out or 45 overall and 12 out of 13 in our division.

Don carrying the baton on the opeing 400M


I began the day running the 5 mile race. We had four team members from my company for the event. I posted a time of 43:23.2 which I was ok with given that I have been sick since September 2 with sinus problems. I really expected to finish around 45 minutes so I was pleasantly surprised by my time. Keep in mind that my 5 mile personal best was set in Sept '06 with a 40:30 performance at the "On Your Mark for the Parks" race.

Almost finished


Our group improved dramatically in our second year of participating (my first). It turned out to be a fun day and quite warm with temps around 84 by noon.


Coming up...

Saturday Big Weez will make her official 5k debut. I will be pushing her through the course at the Trinity Free Clinic 5k. Liz is thinking about pushing Emmeline through the course too. Hopefully pictures to come

More news...

Emmeline is on the verge of crawling and she is eating solids now. I have some video footage that I will post as soon as I have time to upload.

Thanks until next time.

Indianapolis 500 Mini Marathon 2008

My registration is in for the 2008 Mini. I went back and forth on doing the race again this year and considered moving to the 5K. In the end I decided to go for the half-marathon again and train with a vengeance to shave about 20-25 minutes off of my 2006 time. I will post my training schedule and some results from last weekends Corporate challenge in the coing days...

Anneliese and Sarah go to the park

A couple of weekends ago we made it into Cincinnati for a cookout at my parents house. Shelley and Lance came over with my niece and nephew. Anneliese and Sarah played together and wore each other out. Little AJ is on the move and can't be stopped only contained. Our girls slept like champs the day after. Here are a few shots from the day:

The Irish Festival...

Mid September and temperatures still nearing the 90's. We joined aunt Bea and uncle Jesse at the Indianapolis Irish Festival. The weather was just about perfect for an afternoon of fun and music (an a few adult beverages). Anneliese played in the kids area for a bit then we strolled around the grounds until we settled in by the main music stage. I took Anneliese to the restroom and while I was gone uncle Jess brought over a couple of members of the Glengarry Boys band to meet us. So Anneliese and I missed meeting the band but we did get back in time for their show. We headed to Buca di Beppo afterwards for a little family style dining. Anneliese also made friends with a Dutch girl who just adored her.

In Loving Memory...

Tonight I would like to take a few minutes to pay my respects to my Aunt Donna and my cousin Butch.


Aunt Donna lost her battle with cancer in July. If you will indulge me, I would like to share a few of my favorite memories of Aunt Donna with you.

Antiques, Elephants and Sleigh Bells

Legend has it that I am named after Aunt Donna. That has neither been confirmed nor denied. My earliest memories of Aunt Donna involve playing at her house. She had a piano in the dining room that she would let us bang around on. And there was a white shag rug in front of their fireplace that was shaped liked a bear pelt which I would lay on whenever I got the chance. When we would play in the back yard we knew better than to get in Uncle Bob's garden. The older kids had me convinced that the outside door to their basement was really the door to an old ladies apartment who lived underneath them. They used to dare me to go knock on the door. I remember a large (porcelain?) elephant that sat next to the fireplace also.

If I were to go chronologically on events I would have to put things in this order:

Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve was always spent at Aunt Donna's house when I was growing up. Santa Claus would stop by and deliver presents to everyone who was there. For many years Aunt Donna gave me the honor of holding Santa's sleigh bells while he passed out presents and ringing them during the singing of "Jingle Bells."

Going to court, Aunt Donna spent part of her career as a bailiff. I think I was about 10 or 11 when Aunt Donna invited me and my cousins Joe and Danielle to go to court for the day. We spent the day watching the legal system at work. I remember going to lunch at this cool new restaurant that had just opened up. It was a sandwich shop called Subway. Looking back that was a really cool experience.

On the cat walk, Aunt Donna ran for State Rep. We happily worked on her campaign. She invited my cousin Joe and I to help with a campaign fund raiser. I was probably 12-13 at the time. Joe and I were to escort the models to the runway in a fashion show. The models happen to be some of my cousin Robin's most beautiful friends. How lucky were we? That was a fun night for everyone. Joe and I wore tuxedos and at the end we had took off the button down shirt to show off the Lunsford for State Rep t-shirt. It was neat to be invited to participate in that and other campaign projects.

Wow, there are so many more memories. I just don't think that I can do them any justice typed here on this page.

Butch died a few weeks later at the age of 45. Unexpected. Untimely (as if death is ever timely) for an already grieving family. Butch always had a smile on his face and was friendly to everyone. I don't think you could meet a nicer man. He was laid to rest in his casket with the same familiar smile that would lead you to believe he was up to something or getting ready to share a joke.

I am confident that they are in a better place now waiting to be rejoined with their loved ones.

The weddin'

July 7, 2007 was the date of the wedding for Liz's cousin Austin and his new wife Melissa. On Friday morning we packed the family up for an excursion to Fort Wayne, IN (also affectionately known as The Fort and Fart Wayne) for the wedding weekend. No road trip would ever be complete without a stop at Cracker Barrel for some eats so on the way there we stopped in Gas City for lunch. Liz and Anneliese ordered off the breakfast menu and I grabbed a lunch special. Had to have the potato caserole too. Then we were back on the road to finish the drive in.

Fiday, July 6...the night of the rehearsal & dinner. We arrived at the church at 6:10 for the rehearsal that started at 6. Ten minutes late is actually pretty good by our standards these days but we hated to hold everyone else up. Anneliese got to practice for her role as co-flower girl (pictured below) while I learned my duties as one of the ushers. Two times through the program and it was time to go get some eats.

Flower Girls Anneliese and Lilli


The rehearsal dinner was at the Oyster Bar (sorry I couldn't find a link for a restaurant website but I do highly recommend it if you are in the area). Our table all enjoyed the filet mignon with sauteed mushrooms and onions. We hung around for a few drinks then it was back to the hotel for some sleep.

Saturday, July 7....the big day for Austin and Melissa arrived. Nice weather, albeit hot. We rolled to the church at 2 PM which was right on time! Everyone was ready and the church was filled on time for the 3:30 start. After a nice service we headed to the reception and here are the photos:

Austin with his parents before the wedding


Austin and Liz before the wedding


Austin and Melissa


Austin and Melissa in the church


The Groom "loves to breakdance"


And I ain't never been shy about dancing either


It must run in the family because Anneliese has moves too


Our family


Thats all for the wedding. I do have some 4th of July stuff to update and will get to it later this week.

Austin and Melissa, may you have a long and happy life together. Have fun on your cruise.

Running Log, week of July 2:

Tuesday July 3, Runners Forum Twilight 5K Race Series at Noblesville X-country course...

The race started at around 6:30 PM and took place at one of the the areas best cross country courses. The temps were very warm and the day was humid. About 115 runners lined-up for the start. Many were high school cross country runners others were parents of or former CC runners themselves. The rest of us were born again runners who discovered running later in life. I ran a time of 26 minutes and some change. Only slightly faster than the 5K I completed a couple of weeks ago.

Friday, July 6, Track workout...

The schedule called for 4X1000 on the track at 5K pace. I left at about 9:00 AM ( I was off work for the day) and the temps was already reaching 90. We were scheduled to leave for Fort Wayne for a wedding (more to come in the next post) so I had to cut the workout a little short.

1 mile warmup on the way to the track
1000 at 4:29
1000 at 4:35
400 at 88 seconds
7 minute cool down
and a final interval ran hard for 1:48

These hard workouts feel great and I expect to see a nice improvement over time.

Sunday, July 8, need to run at least 5 miles today or tomorrow.

Training Log

Today's workout was a speed day. The temp was about 84 and sunny with a decent breeze blowing. Liz and I set out for the track with the kids in the stroller. We got about half way there when I realized that I did not have my watch on...essential for timing splits on the track. So I ran back home and got the watch. The end result was a 1.5 mile warm-up run before the Pyramid Workout on the track started. My workout was 200-400-600-800-600-400-200 meters with a cool down between each distance. Liz did a few laps around the track with the girls while I ran before she headed off to the park where I'd meet up with them a bit later.

Here are the results:

200- 34.9 seconds
400- 88 seconds
500- 2:15
800- 3:45
600- 2:43
400- 96 seconds
200- 36.8 seconds

After 5 minutes of stretching I ran 1 mile back to the park to meet up with the girls. Anneliese played on the swing and slide for a few more minutes before we headed home. Liz ran the rest of the way home while I walked with the girls in their double stroller.

Photos of the week

blowin' bubbles



get on the bus



smilin sisters



Lucy hidin' out from Big Weez



@ Monument Circle



Enjoy!

The Girls...

Pictures to come. Tech issues tonight with uploading the pictures.

Race Report: Fishers Freedom Festival 5K, June 23, 2007

For the third consecutive year I raced in the Fishers Freedom Festival 5K race. This year was to be slightly different from the previous two years as I was planning on pushing Anneliese in her BabyJogger since this is a stroller friendly race (and there ain't many of those). For weeks we have talked about our strategy and built up excitement for the race. First we planned on me pushing, Anneliese riding. Then she decided she should push and I should ride. Finally, we decided to go with the original plan of me pushing and Anneliese riding.

Race day rolledaround on Saturday. I woke up to find that it had rained in the night. Oh, and it was still raining. It would not be Anneliese's day for a race. I slipped out without waking her to get to the race. I will run in the rain but I did not want Anneliese to have to endure it.

The weather was cooler than previous years. It was 62, off and on rain, humid. The race has grown from about 300 people the first year that I ran to 500 to 700 this year. The winner crossed the finish line in 15 minutes flat. That is a blistering 4:52 per mile pace. I was right behind him in a equally awe inspiring 26:34. Not my personal best, not even my best on the Freedom Fest course but a good workout anyway.

Anneliese was a little upset about missing the race. I wish she could have been there. Just gives me an excuse to sign us up for another race :)

Over the Hudson....

Hello, hello, hello. Back from my trip to the NYC area complete with a night in Atlanta (well more like 5 hours) on the airline's tab. If you are ever stuck in Atlanta and need a hotel room, go with the Hyatt Place Hotel. It is clean, nice and within a 5 minute ride on their shuttle. The staff made it more comfortable for the 15 or so of us that checked in at midnight last night by smiling and moving through the line quickly.

NYC

As always, NYC was a pleasure. I likes the big city, I likes it a lot. Here are a few shots I have taken over my last several trips there. Included are some pictures from the Mets/Twins game we went to on Tuesday night at Shea Stadium.

Empire State Building


Lady Liberty (taken from a ferry in spring '05)


Lower Manhattan


Corporate HQ for the Company I work for


Shea #1, Paul Lo Duca at the plate


Shea #2, Johan Santana completes his motion to the plate


Ready to Roll!

Anneliese and I will be racing in about 36 hours! I was bad, bad, bad this week and did not get a single workout in. I think we'll take the race a little easier than I originally planned, but who knows? Maybe I will come back a little stronger from the extra rest! Here is Anneliese showing off her ride, I'll be pushing her in the BabyJogger this Saturday:



And we have added a double stroller to the rotation. (Sadly we got excited about ordering this stroller, I mean it, real excitement, we don't get out much)



Race Across America Update

Both NF Cycle teams finished the journey from Oceanside, CA to Atlantic City, NJ. Congrats to all riders for an amazing accomplishment. Hats off to you. The Soldiers made it across in 7 days and about 15 hours while the Angels rode for 8 days and 14 hours. Keep in mind that means someone from each team was riding at all times during that period. I'll see if I can wrangle some pictures.

This is a running blog...

So I will mention that the USATF Outdoor track championships are here in Indy this week. I am hoping to get downtown to see the 200 meter finals if nothing else. There are some solid competitors going for the win in that distance: Tyson Gay, Dix, Spearmon, Wariner, and Carter. From the USATF website:

FAST FACTS

World record: 19.32, Michael Johnson, 1996

American record: 19.32, Michael Johnson, 1996

Meet record: 19.66, Michael Johnson, 1996

Time schedule: 1st round 4:30 p.m., Saturday; semifinals noon Sunday; final 2:20 p.m. Sunday

Should be a great race. I'll run a 200m tomorrow and post the time. Don't expect any threat to Michael's records :)

Greetings from Pittsburgh International!

DELAY/DELAY/DELAY

I am sitting in councourse A at Pittsburgh's International Airport. My connection to Newark, NJ was supposed to leave at 4:00 PM. There was a delay until 5:50 posted when I stepped off my flight from Indy. Then 6:05 and now 6:39. If things stay on track now then I will get in to Newark at around 8:15. Tempers are flaring! Not mine, but I have overheard some people blowing up at the Gate Agents because they were bumped for people with higher frequent flier standing. Curse words were flying even though the planes apparently are not. A gate agent talking to another customer said that all of the flights out of Pittsburgh today are oversold more than usual. Cha-ching for the airlines and the restaurants and stores in the airport mall. For us lowly passengers it is just sit-and-wait time.

Lesson for the air traveler: don't blow up at the gate agent, he or she is not the target of your anger!



Airport workout

I have made use of my 3 hours of unplanned idle time to do some work email, laps around the concourse, and update this blog. I will not make it in time for dinner with my colleagues tonight but maybe in time for a drink.

As promised...here are the girls

and




Just cause I think the technology is cool, here is a bird's eye view of our house courtesy of Google Earth(in the middle of the screen) taken soemtime before I built our deck in July '05.



Race updates...Anneliese and I are a week and a half out from our race. I have a run scheduled for this weekend and will try to get a picture of us in action. Our NF friends in the RAAM have completed 488.9 miles (Shannon's Soldiers) and 389.9 miles (Ari's Angels). Speeds are between 14 and 18 MPH!