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Posts Tagged ‘running’

#AutismStreaks Week 10

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged #autismstreaks, running, training on March 13, 2013| 2 Comments »

For whatever ridiculous reason, I thought Saturday morning would be warm enough to go without glove…I was, um, wrong.

Oops! I knew I was forgetting something yesterday! No, I got my run in – I forgot to post this post!

10 weeks in, 378 miles behind me. Despite a snowstorm on Friday, I can feel the weather beginning to turn; I see more runners out on the weekends training for Boston – I still should have worn gloves Saturday morning though; 14 miles later, my fingers needed 30 minutes to fully recover.

I hope you got your runs in this week. Less than a month to 100 days!!!

Week 10:
March 05 – 3.0 miles 24:34 8:11 pace aHR 133
March 06 – 5.0 miles 40:03 8:00 pace
March 07 – 5.0 miles 42:57 8:35 pace aHR 122
March 08 – 1.0 miles 9:00 9:00 pace
March 09 – 14.0 miles 1:51:19 7:57 pace aHR 129
March 10- 12.0 miles 1:50:03 9:10 pace aHR 123
March 11 – 1.0 miles 8:40 8:40 pace
Week 10 Total – 41.0 miles

#AutismStreaks Total – 378.0 miles (as measured by Garmin 610)

***

If you want to start your own #CharityStreak pick up the Charity Miles app and start raising money for your favorite charity simply by walking, running or biking:

Get the Charity Miles app:

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#AutismStreaks Week 9

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged #AutismSteaks, autism, comrades, running, TARC 100, training, Vermont 50, vt 50, Week 9 on March 5, 2013| 1 Comment »

Week 9 of #AutismStreaks brought highs and lows – for those of you who follow Jess, you know it’s been, well, an “interesting” week. I was particularly pleased with my run on Saturday – a steady and strong 21-miler that was my longest run of the year by 9 miles. During that run I shared a few miles with a gentleman named Errol, a runner from South Africa who was training for Boston. While chatting he almost convinced me that I need to run Comrades, a 54 mile race in South Africa that changes direction every year; every other year it’s uphill, the other, downhill. Let’s see if I still want to run Ultras after this year’s TARC 100 and Vermont 50.

I hope you got you runs in this week,
Luau

Week 9:
February 26 – 5.0 miles 37:58 7:35 pace
February 27 – 4.0 miles 31:54 7:58 pace aHR 128
February 28 – 7.0 miles 50:00 7:08 pace aHR 149
March 01 – 1.0 miles 8:32 8:32 pace aHR 146
March 02 – 21.0 miles 2:56:45 8:25 pace aHR 132
March 03- 1.0 miles 10:18 10:18 pace
March 04 – 5.0 miles 36:06 7:13 pace aHR 140
Week 8 Total – 44.0 miles

#AutismStreaks Total – 337.0 miles (as measured by Garmin 610)

***

If you want to start your own #CharityStreak pick up the Charity Miles app and start raising money for your favorite charity simply by walking, running or biking:

Get the Charity Miles app:

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Family

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged app, autism, Autism Speaks, Charity Miles, family, running on February 27, 2013| 6 Comments »

Friends are the family you choose…and that choose you.

They say you can’t choose your family…I beg to differ.

For those who don’t regularly follow either Jess or me on the blogosphere or elsewhere, it’s been a tough few weeks – we found out that Brooke has been suffering from brain seizure activity and that the seizures may be causing some language loss for our baby. Although we have seen quite a bit of horizontal growth in her language over the last year, her vertical development has essentially stagnated, if not taken a step backward. We are in the middle of the process of trying to figure out what is going on. An MRI performed last week showed no abnormalities in her brain structure. We are still waiting to hear what her 24-hour EEG revealed.

It’s been difficult and I wrote last week how many of YOU have been our Sunlight during this confusing time. Part of my personal therapy has been to run – this streak could not have come at a better time for me; some runs have been full of deep thought, others have been an opportunity to simply shut out the outside world and go. As you may know, I have run every run running the Charity Miles App. Using the GPS in your smartphone, it tracks your run (or bike ride or walk) and makes a small donation for every mile that you cover. I’ve written more about the app and Charity Miles —>Here<—.

I always thought that Gene (the founder) was a pretty good guy. I liked his story and I liked what he was doing. What I didn’t truly realize was that this guy is paying attention and he truly cares. When Jess and I first found out about Brooke’s brain seizure activity, we were devastated and that devastation was reflected in my posts – Gene tracked my phone number down through a mutual friend and called me to make sure I was okay. This isn’t a guy I know. We have never met, but he cares about his Charity Miles team. I was floored.

But it didn’t stop there.

A few days later, after finishing up a run, I went through my routine of logging my miles, first through the Charity Miles App. The way it works is that after your run, in order to have the donations sent to your charity of choice, you must post that you ran using the app on Facebook and Twitter. Charity Miles always has a few hashtags thrown in, I assume to draw attention to groups they are working with. I always add the #AutismStreaks hashtag and the day before hitting send. On that particular day, I was surprised to see another one: #TeamLuau

I blinked. I didn’t think I had added that. No, I’m sure I didn’t do that. Then I wasn’t so sure – sometimes I do these things on auto-pilot. I did a twitter search of the #TeamLuau hashtag – and there it was, on every Charity Miles run done for Autism Speaks.

I was speechless. I tweeted Charity Miles that I was speechless, honored, thankful.

Their response?

Simply put?

We’re family.

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#AutismStreaks Week 8

Posted in motivation, tagged #autismstreaks, autism, log, running, week 8 on February 26, 2013| 2 Comments »

Week 8 brought a 24 EEG and an MRI for the little one – by Friday I was cooked and could muster only a mile. I’m not sure whether all the visits to the hospital or my lack of sleep affected my ability to think straight, but I also seem to have registered for a 100-mile race come June. Good thing I’ve been doing all this base building!

Friday night would have been fantastic in the moonlight, but all I could muster was one mile…

Week 8:
February 19 – 7.0 miles 59:38 8:31 pace aHR 133
February 20 – 8.0 miles 1:00:33 7:34 pace aHR 156
February 21 – 8.0 miles 1:11:45 8:58 pace aHR 126
February 22 – 1.0 miles 10:00 10:00 pace aHR 147
February 23 – 9.0 miles 1:08:59 7:40 pace aHR 138
February 24 – 3.0 miles 24:59 8:19 pace aHR 125
February 25 – 7.0 miles 1:01:28 8:47 pace aHR 122
Week 8 Total – 43.0 miles

#AutismStreaks Total – 293.0 miles (as measured by Garmin 610)

***

If you want to start your own #CharityStreak pick up the Charity Miles app and start raising money for your favorite charity simply by walking, running or biking:

Get the Charity Miles app:

Read Full Post »

Gah!!!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged #autismstreaks, 100 miles, 100-miler, Charity Miles, running, TARC 100, training, ultra, ultramarathon, ultrarunning, what am I doing? on February 22, 2013| 7 Comments »

A little less than a year and a half ago I crossed the finish line of the Vermont 50 – fifty miles through the mountains of Vermont.

It.

Was.

Miserable.

When I crossed the finish line in just over eleven hours, I made a bee-line for my buddy Doug (the guy who had convinced me this was a good idea) and yelled a string of expletives at him. I was never going to do this again, I concluded.

Ultra-Marathon could now be checked off on the bucket list – time to move on.

Never again.

…

About a half hour later, I looked over at Doug and said something along the lines 0f, “you know, if we had actually done any kind of training before this, we probably could have gone sub-10:00.” I started thinking of doing it again the following year.

As life will often do, scheduling got in the way and I could not participate in last year’s Vermont 50. I told Doug that 2013 would be the year of the sub-10. I hadn’t signed up for any marathons save New York City, so I planned on putting in some miles early and then getting serious about training over the summer.

Then #AutismStreaks began. My mileage through seven and half weeks hasn’t been huge, but I do feel like my legs are coming back – I may be slower than I once was, but I still enjoy time on my feet. Earlier this week I went running with my Super Sunday 5 running buddy JB. He is probably one of the easiest people to run with.

Yesterday he posted this on Facebook:

JB’s Facebook Post…

***

After Vermont and my experience at Around the Lake earlier that July, I swore I would never run a 100-miler until I had the ability to cover that distance in 18 hours or less. It wasn’t a speed issue, rather it was I had come to dislike racing at night. Around the Lake was miserable, absolutely miserable. The idea of running through the night, which, at my speed, I would have to do to cover 100 miles, did not appeal to me at all. I knew that at best I could maybe cover 100 miles in 24 hours, under ideal conditions, and the laws of time and space dictate that if that is the case, I would have to run through the night.

Nope. I wasn’t ever going to do that.

Wasn’t.

Going.

To happen!

***

To humor myself I clicked on the link – what kind of craziness was JB getting into? 100 miles? He’s crazy! Trail running madman he is. That’s just…oh, hey, look – it’s relatively local…and it’s flat…only 3000 feet of climb for the whole 100 miles…what was Vermont? over 9,000 feet over 50 miles? that’s six times the elevation per mile…and, whoa! $60??? that’s CHEAP!!!

I shook my head. What the HELL was I thinking???

No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!!!

I left JB a comment: Are you entered?

JB: Yes sir.

Me: Do you have a goal time? WHY THE HELL WAS I ASKING??? And is 3000 climb for 100 miles or for 25 miles? STOP ASKING HIM QUESTIONS!!!

JB: its for the 100, and I think finishing would be a great goal! its pretty damn flat

My response? I am not actually considering a 100-miler…I am not actually considering a 100-miler…I am not actually considering a 100-miler…

***

Over dinner I mentioned to Jess that I might be thinking about running the TARC 100 – I began with I know I said I would never do one of these things, but you know, it’s relatively local and it’s flat, and JB and Doug are running it and it’s really, really inexpensive and I know I said I would never do one of these things but…

She looked at me as she interrupted me, You know how when I tell you I’m going to buy a pair of boots and I start to come up with all kinds of reasons why I “need” them when I really don’t and you roll your eyes as if to say just go buy them? I’m rolling my eyes…you’re nuts, but go ahead.

90 minutes later, this happened:

…what have I done?

GAH!!!

On the bright side, if I’m still #AutismStreaking at this point (I believe it would be day 165) that will be a lot of Charity Miles!

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#AutismStreaks Week 7

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged #autismstreaks, autism, Charity Miles, health, running on February 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

struggling through the news…

It was another week filled with run therapy – the news of Brooke’s brain seizures made the runs this week harder but all the more meaningful to me. Ending Week 7 with a fantastic 12-miler with my bud JB was just what I needed! Thank you again for all of your support this week.

Week 7:
February 12 – 3.0 miles 24:05 8:01 pace aHR 140
February 13 – 5.0 miles 37:46 7:33 pace aHR 138
February 14 – 6.0 miles 43:12 7:12 pace aHR 151
February 15 – 10.0 miles 1:17:46 7:45 pace aHR 132
February 16 – 1.0 miles 6:45 6:45 pace aHR 139
February 17 – 6.0 miles 49:14 8:12 pace aHR 134
February 18 – 12.0 miles 1:33:07 7:45 pace aHR 138 (hit 250 miles YTD on the nose)
Week 5 Total – 43.0 miles

#AutismStreaks Total – 250.0 miles (as measured by Garmin 610)

post-12-miler on Monday with my bud JB

***

If you want to start your own #CharityStreak pick up the Charity Miles app and start raising money for your favorite charity simply by walking, running or biking:

Get the Charity Miles app:

Read Full Post »

Sunlight

Posted in other, tagged #autismstreaks, brain seizures, health, mental health, running, sunlight, Thank you on February 15, 2013| 16 Comments »

It’s been a rough, tough couple of weeks here. For those that don’t follow me or Jess on Facebook or Twitter, we received news earlier this week that Brooke has in fact been suffering from brain seizures. Jess and I were, despite preparing ourselves for the possibility, completely rocked. The news from the neurologist was followed up just hours later with more difficult news from Brooke’s neuropsych (or as Jess calls him – Dr. Dreamy). Her verbal IQ had taken a frightening tumble over the last year, dropping her into the bottom one percentile of her peers.

Yeah…Jess and I walked out of there a complete mess.

That was Wednesday night. Thursday went by in a complete blur. Jess stayed home to prepare for Brooke’s team meeting at school, while I drove her around to attend to those preparations. I just wanted to get to the end of the day and go to sleep.

Sleep didn’t help.

I woke up this morning just as distraught, just as angry, just as stressed. So many of you have sent words of love and support and offers of connections to doctors. Up until today, that had been my lifeline – I can’t thank you enough. I know there are people out there who say that social media has made the world a colder, less inter-personal place, but after what you did for me and Jess Wednesday night and yesterday, I could not disagree more. Like I said, you have been my lifeline.

But then something else happened today. Instead of running angry as I have for the last several days, I decided to run comfortably; to purposely run at a slower, steadier pace. I kept my pulse in the high 120’s and just glided for 5 miles before turning up the pace a little. It was meditative, contemplative, reflective.

At the end of the run I took my usual “#AutismStreaeks Day Fill-In-Blank” photo. The sun was behind me, which I hadn’t realized, and created a burst across my face in the photo and it struck me – even the darkest of nights must eventually give way to the sunlight.

…even the darkest night must eventually give way to the sun…
#AustismStreaks Day 46

Brooke will get through this, as will Jess, Katie and I.

Thank you for being our sunlight.

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#AutismStreaks Week 6

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged #autismstreaks, autism, Autism Speaks, Charity Miles, running on February 12, 2013| 3 Comments »

Six weeks already? Wow! This was a tough week – between Brooke’s EEG and a storm that finally delivered what the weathermen had promised, it has been a tiring week. That said, there were a couple of really good runs – Thursday’s 10-miler proved to be one of my best efforts of the year (the last 2.5 miles coming at a 6:44 pace) and that was preceded on Wednesday by a very zippy 6-miler that was way faster than last Sunday’s race. Running in the middle of Nemo was an adventure to be sure, followed the next morning by an ice cold run – 9°F! Yikes!

All in all a good week of running despite a tough week at home.

Hope you all got your miles in this week!

-Luau

Week 6:
February 05 6.0 miles 52:18 8:43 pace aHR 123
February 06 6.0 miles 42:03 7:00 pace aHR 149

Day 37 – a zippy 6 where I just missed going sub-42

February 07 10.0 miles 71:11 7:09 pace aHR 147

Day 38 – Best run of the week – run on very little sleep – last 2.5 miles were at 6:44 pace!

February 08 3.0 miles 24:14 8:05 pace aHR 129

Day 39 – Pre-Nemo Run

February 09 5.0 miles 45:32 9:06 pace aHR 134

Day 40 – 5 Snowmageddon Miles

February 10 2.0 miles 16:55 8:58 pace aHR 156

Day 41 – Post-Nemocalyptic Run in 9° temps

February 11 5.0 miles 40:00 8:00 pace aHR 135

Day 42 – 6 Weeks in the books

Week 5 Total – 37.0 miles

#AutismStreaks Total – 207.0 miles (as measured by Garmin 610) – puts me 3 miles behind my mileage of at least 5.00 miles per day.

***

If you want to start your own #CharityStreak pick up the Charity Miles app and start raising money for your favorite charity simply by walking, running or biking:

Get the Charity Miles app:

Read Full Post »

#AutismStreaks Week 5

Posted in log, motivation, Uncategorized, tagged #autismstreaks, autism, Autism Speaks, Charity Miles, running, streaking on February 5, 2013| 2 Comments »

I thought the slightly milder weather this past week would bring a few more miles, but sometimes life doesn’t play out as planned. It didn’t help that I came down with something on Friday, cutting my planned Friday and Saturday runs short. Despite my head and chest cold, I did get to run one of my favorite races of the year – the Super Sunday 5-Miler put on by RaceMenu. It’s hard to go wrong when finishers are greeted by FIVE different brewers of beer, each presenting a variety of their brews. A race report is on its way.

I hope everyone got some miles in this week!

-Luau

Week 5:
January 29 5.0 miles 36:20 7:16 pace aHR 151 (surpassed 150 miles YTD)
January 30 5.0 miles 42:43 8:32 pace aHR 132
January 31 1.0 miles 09:27 9:27 pace aHR 150
February 01 4.0 miles 29:46 7:26 pace aHR 137
February 02 2.0 miles 15:40 7:50 pace aHR 182 (short mileage after debilitating head cold Friday night – don’t think the HR monitor was functioning properly)
February 03 5.0 miles 36:28 7:18 pace (Super Sunday 5-Miler – didn’t wear heart monitor – race recap coming)
February 04 2.0 miles 13:58 6:59 pace aHR 144
Week 5 Total – 24.0 miles

#AutismStreaks Total – 170.0 miles (as measured by Garmin 610) – puts me 5 miles behind my goal of averaging at least 5 miles a day. Hopefully I get it back this week.

Waiting for the start of the Super Sunday 5-Miler – it was 22°F and snowing!

***

If you want to start your own #CharityStreak pick up the Charity Miles app and start raising money for your favorite charity simply by walking, running or biking:

Get the Charity Miles app:

Read Full Post »

New Month Resolution

Posted in diet, health, motivation, Uncategorized, tagged do it, eat clean, gym, health, meditation, New Month Resolution, new year's resolution, running on January 30, 2013| 2 Comments »

Tomorrow is the last day of January, the first month of 2013. Some have managed to stick to their Healthful New Year’s Resolutions while others have, well, to put it nicely, fallen off the wagon.

Here’s the cool thing – just like the change from December 31st to January 1st, tomorrow night at midnight the calendar turns once again. For those who want a “clean” beginning, February 1st offers the same “magic” that January 1st does, giving you a second chance to start again, this time hopefully learning from any mistakes you may have made over the last month.

So if you have fallen, you CAN get up, dust yourself off and try, try again. If you stumbled and stopped running, going to the gym, eating clean, meditating daily, whatever your healthful resolution was, think about it today and tomorrow; ask yourself where you fell short and on February 1st, wake up and take back what is rightfully yours.

And if you’ve been strong and steady in your resolution, then take tomorrow to pat yourself on the back and then resolve to do it again for another month!

DO IT!