It took longer than I thought, but I finally reached 300 miles a few weeks ago. This 100 took longer than the last, but was faster than the first.

I’m shooting for three straight months of 20+ miles. This month I’ve tweaked my form, and I think it will really increase my speeds. I’m ramping up my mile count, but at about 2-3 mins faster per mile. I’m on my phone right now, but there’s an awesome video I will share with some great instruction.

The more I run and the more I learn, the more I realize that running can be much more than just throwing on any random pair of shoes and running down the street. Focusing on good form and practing the discipline to do it regularly is a huge part. And best of all, being in shape just feels good.

Watch out 400….I’m coming for you.

After over a week off, I got in a nice 5 mile run to end this extended leap day month of February. That put me at 23 for the month, following 26 last month.

I’ve never had a very extended period of really good running. I actually did 34 miles last January, but then I tweaked my back, and before I knew it we were moving and everything was screwed up!

Two months of 20+ is nice. I’d like to see something like 6+ months of 20+…heck, even 30+. Out of curiosity, I did some checking on marathon times to see how I’d place in the LA Marathon (I checked Boston…but apparently you have to qualify, and you have to be FAST). I am not fast. To run 5 today, I purposely ran at about 70-80%, and did just under a 12 min/mile pace. Surprisingly though, if I could keep that up for 26.2 miles, that would put me right about in the middle of the entire marathon…a lot better than I would have thought. I don’t think I’m anywhere near ready for a marathon though. Some sustained running for several months will be a good start. For whatever reason I’ve never been able to. First it was my back, then moving, then baby…but no excuses now!

I’ve been off caffeine since Sunday, so that’s a good step for me. It seems once I start drinking coffee, I need it everyday, and I feel all out of wack after a while. So no coffee…more milk and water!

I turned 30 a couple days ago! I don’t get too excited about birthdays in general, so even turning a milestone like 30 wasn’t a huge deal. It was a good excuse to spend time with my wife. We went down to San Clemente and went to the Rainbow Sandals store for the first time. Then we walked the pier and ate at Avila’s El Ranchito Mexican restaurant. The only reason 30 was significant to me is because I wanted to be in the best shape of my life by 30, but I think I’ve come to the conclusion that 18 year old me will always win, haha. But regardless, after a long hiatus from running (darn throwing my back out), I’m getting back in the groove.

I wanted to hit the 200 mile milestone much earlier, but I finally hit it the other day. To hit my first 100 miles it took me 315 days, but to hit my second 100 miles it only took 196 days! Originally I had hoped to do 100 miles in 100 days, but that didn’t happen. Maybe miles 201-300 will be in 100 days! You can always follow my progress at RunKeeper.

Otherwise we’ve been staying busy during the first week of summer. We found a place to rent in Rossmoor, and put down our deposit earlier this week. It’s a 3 bed/2 bath house. Rent is a little more than our previous mortgage, but much cheaper than buying. Bathrooms and kitchen have all been remodeled, so it’s a place I can see ourselves staying for several years. Gives us time to save up, let the housing market figure itself out, and in the meantime we can start enjoying Los Al schools and the neighborhood. Here’s a picture before they put in the grass.

It’s available August 1st, so that means we’ll be spending another month at the in-laws. It should still give us time to move and get settled in to the new place before the school year starts, but it’s making this summer feel very different than all the rest. Everything is in transition!

Otherwise I’ve been keeping busy with my PS3. I just finished Red Dead Redemption and was really disappointed. For getting so many GOTY awards, it was a big let down. Not only did the storyline and voice acting get tiresome, but the controls were obnoxious. It shouldn’t take me 5 tries to go through a doorway! Now that’s it done I picked up Borderlands, and already I like it a ton more. The controls are super tight, and I love the RPG aspect of building your character and finding new weapons. I have a feeling the story will get lost amongst all the missions they send you on, but it’s fun.

The last thing I’ve been enjoying lately is Google+! I’ve never been a huge Facebook fan, so to have an alternate social network to try is great. I’m a big fan of most things Google, so this is yet another area I can’t wait to see them push into.

If you get a summer, I hope it’s off to a great start. If you don’t get a summer, I’m sorry.

I did it…I went a whole month without a post…how sad. February was a short month though, so if I add an extra day to that month, then today would only be March 16th, and I wouldn’t be dead yet. Makes perfect sense.

Luke is three now! On one hand it feels like it has gone by fast, but on the other we see pictures of him at 6 months old and I can barely remember it. We’re getting the hang of going potty, which is great. We love Bob the Builder and fixing things!

Otherwise nothing too exciting is going on (guess that’s why I haven’t posted!). Now for some quick hits:

• I have 29 unique Androids now between series 1 and 2. I’m missing two from this new series, but they’re chases, and will easily cost me $75 a piece on ebay. Meh.
• I’ve been playing FF13 for 83 hours (and yes, I’m finally getting bored.) But I’ve got one or two trophies I’m soooo close to getting, haha.
• Can’t wait for baseball season to start.
• Running got a little sidetracked. Tweaked my back painting ceilings, so I wasn’t running as much as usual. I’m really going to have to push, but I think I can still reach my goal.
• Almost done with Dexter – Season 1. Enjoying it very much.

Guess that’s all for now!

I’m sitting on the couch, shirt soaked in sweat, and burning up in a house that’s only 70 degrees. That’s because I just broke the 100 mile mark. But this story starts back in January.

I’ve been battling neck pain for over a year and a half. I blame a chiropractor, but I’ve been over that. I tried traditional physical therapy for a couple months, and that seemed to be working, but then it wasn’t. Back in January I decided to visit a different chiropractor, one that was suggested by my physical therapist. I went to him in January of this year, and one of the first things he said to me was how important exercise was. At that point, I was willing to try anything, so I took up running. (11 or so months removed from that first visit, my neck isn’t perfect, but it is remarkably better than it was this time last year.)

On February 2nd, I went for my first run. I had no idea what I was doing, and I went into it knowing I’ve hated running in the past, but if the chiro thought exercise would help, I was willing to try it. Those first couple weeks were pretty bad. I would feel winded after a quarter mile! Trying to run one whole mile without stopping was out of the question…but I pressed on.

There was a hump to get over, and once I did, running started to be fun. At first it was one mile without stopping…then two….and three…(and one time four!) There were times where I could run non-stop for a half an hour! What a far cry from having to stop and walk after just a few minutes.

My running saga hasn’t been without setbacks. My first was knee and hip pain, and for that I blame big bulky running shoes. I switched to Vibrams, and it was night and day. Unfortunately I also switched to a pure forefoot strike (basically landing on my toes), and that led to some foot problems. In the middle of those foot problems though I developed a much more natural midfoot strike, but not knowing why my foot hurt, I went to my podiatrist.

He wasn’t a fan of barefoot style running, so he convinced me to buy a new pair of shoes. After a full month off, I started running in those…and I just couldn’t enjoy it. I did a few weeks in shoes, and then went back to my Vibrams, haha. I’ve done 15 miles since, and I’m feeling good.

So it took me 10.5 months (316 days) to rack up 100 miles. I had a couple months off where I didn’t really run at all while I healed up, but I’m excited I did my first 100 in less than a year. Sometimes I wonder if my body is cut out for running, but I’ve got this urge to keep pushing myself. If I can do 100 miles in 10 months, can I do the next 100 in 6 months? That’s like 1 mile every other day. Seems doable!

As much as I wish I’d never hurt my neck, sometimes I think it will be for the better. If I hadn’t, I might never have been scared enough to take control and get fit. I don’t want to wait until I’m 50 to realize I’m out of shape and can’t do anything about it. I want to stick around for my family as long as possible, and I think that starts now.

Like I said in a previous post, the last time I pushed myself to 1.5 miles “barefoot,” I had to take a two week break to recover. After my half-mile run the other day, I did a one mile run two days ago, and today I pushed to almost 1.5 miles. I feel pretty good right now, so I don’t think there will be a two week break like last time. Woo hoo!

My favorite part is that I feel like I’m putting my body in better shape. Right now I’m held back by getting my feet/ankles/calves in shape, but aerobically I could probably do 5 miles. When I first started out back in February, I could barely do a half-mile without huffing and puffing. Being able to do 1.5 miles and I’m barely breathing hard is very cool.

Doing a marathon would be really cool. Right now I just want to push myself and do as much as I can, but why not a marathon? Bad joints in the family or not, I might as well set the bar high and go for it. It might take a year or more to get there, but I can dream big.

No better way to start a blog post than with a PUN, don’t you think?

Went for my first run today in about 2 weeks. A couple weeks back I pushed myself to 1.5 miles barefoot (longest ever), and my feet weren’t ready for it!

I’m finding out that getting into barefoot running is going to be a sloooow process. After my very first run, my calves were super tight for like 4 days before I could even think about running. Then my next couple runs I spaced out by a few days, and I didn’t have any major setbacks. But then two weeks ago I did 1.5 miles, and I paid for it.

For the last two weeks my feet specifically have been recovering. First it was the tops of my feet. Those muscles (the few that are in there) were not happy with me. But even when they started to feel better, my ankles were hurting. I told myself I wasn’t going to do any running until they felt strong enough.

So today I forced myself to stop at .5 miles, because I did not want a repeat of the last run. I’ll probably be a little sore tomorrow, but it’s a good feeling. I’d rather my feet take months to get used to running this way, than to develop knee and hip pain from traditional running shoes.

I have no idea how long it will take before I can really push myself, but that’s what this blog is for…to chronicle that progress. Here’s hoping for a quick turn around so I can run again soon!