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.