First thing, let me apologize for not having a video last weekend. It is just way too dark to film anything outside at this point. It was easier when I was inside on the treadmill because of course there are lights. I’m going to have to figure something else out for a little while at least until the sun starts coming out a little bit earlier. I know one thing, the sun will be out on April 5th. I’m really looking forward to doing my second race video. The first half video I did captured that moment for me and I sometimes look at it to “get in the mood.”

I had a good run/walk today, a great one actually. I woke up a little late so I had to get to it. I went to bed a little past midnight because I got stuck watching that baseball classic thing, and I don’t really like baseball. Oh well, I knew when I went to sleep that it was going to be tough to get up but I slept in a little bit (a tad too long), woke up, and took care of business. I have this race in two weeks and I want to do well. A little redemption from January. My confidence is growing leading up to this race and I’m sure after I finish my confidence will be sky high. With four races over the next four months I can only imagine the confidence I will have going into the second half of my race season.

Wow, I almost forgot to post today. That’s how busy things have been for me lately. A lot of changes going on and after all this time without a video I am determined to put a new one out this week. The good thing about it is that there isn’t much time before my next race on April 5th which means a couple trainingvideos and then a race video. I really like doing the race videos (even though I have only done one). The temperatures here are great right now which means running outside from here on out. As you may already know I am moving to Arizona and that means running outside there too. I will only need to go inside to do my resistance training or if it’s 180 degrees outside. I think over the next four months there will be a considerable drop in my weight as I feel like I am finally getting over the Disney slump, I haven’t put on any weight but I haven’t dropped it like I want to either. It has taken a couple of months but the closer a race gets the more excitement I feel. I am hoping that I improve my times at every race this year, I think training outside is a wonderful thing and will help lower my times quite a bit. I’m really looking forward to the new videos, the plan is to do a video at least once a week from here until the final race on October 25th. Being without my family for such a long time will be tough for me but no one said anything was easy.  April 5th is the first race in Ann Arbor Michigan, it starts off the Mr. Marathoner circuit for 2009. Here we go!!!

I’ve been waiting for a whole week to blog as I have a couple of big things to write about today. First, the reason I have waited a week. If you have been following me over the last six months or so I have been dealing with the “hole” on the bottom of my foot. It is in a spot seems to cause it not to heal properly when I am doing my workouts because it is right on the ball of my foot and it seems to be the place that most of the pressure goes. It has healed over and over over these months but it has always left extra skin that would somehow tear the wound open again (I know, gross). This would always cause me to miss a couple of days in the past, then when I could get back on it I would. I dealt with this annoyance because I didn’t want to stop my routine for too long. This, I believe, is the reason is why it never healed properly. Well over the last week I have stayed off of it as much as possible, I took care of it with the only real pressure on it being normal everyday walking, no running , or any pressure on it from resistance training, nothing. I tested it out a bit this morning and I think it has finally healed properly. It isn’t at 100% but I would say at about 92.7%.  It was a long week without doing anything and staying away from the blog but I felt it was necessary. I would rather lose a week now than have another six months dealing with the aggravation and who can say that it won’t get really bad after a while so I am glad I am (hopefully) turning this page.

Now for some other life changing news. As some of you may know my company made the decision to exit the business in the city I live in. On the day of the news I wasn’t so sure as to what I would do. Since that time things have worked out in my favor as I have been given the opportunity to take a position at the office where our business will be migrating. This is great news as it gives me the opportunity to continue my employment with a great company. The big news is that the business is migrating to Phoenix, AZ. It’s an exciting time but also a little sad for me as I will be without my family for a little while when I am out there. I guess I can say thank goodness for web cams as I am going to be extremely familiar with them in a little while. This move also changes my race schedule. I had been doing my research on some races to replace the few I would miss out on in this area so all should go well and I will be updating that information shortly. I have never been as far west as I am about to be in the next six weeks so it’ll be quite a change. Hopefully the desert will be as kind to me as the frozen tundra has been over the last eight years.

If it isn’t one thing it is the other. Some of you may remember the issue I had with my foot and the “hole.” Well it heals, but it heals in a weird way and every now and again I rub it across something and I open it up again. I think Wednesday night was either the third or fourth time this has happened. The “hole” is in the most inconvenient spot on my foot that it could be in and I think that is causing part of the problem with the way it heals because no matter what I have to use my feet. I can say this, it won’t cause me to miss my 12 miler tomorrow morning. After a day or two it begins to heal up and as long as I cover it up it doesn’t bother me when I walk (or run). Yesterday it did bother me a little but today it’s a lot better. I figure by tomorrow morning it shouldn’t be a problem at all. It looks like I will be able to go outside tomorrow for my run which is a plus. I’ll set the alarm for 4:30 am.

I wanted to give an update for the race on April 5th. It was to be the Big D in Dallas, TX but I will be doing the Martian Half Marathon (enter joke here) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is still on the same day so everything is still running on schedule, it’s just in a different location and guess what no plane ride. I still have a rough time flying in planes alone. I know I will have to do it sooner or later but if I can avoid it for now, I will.

Can you have tons of energy but be totally tired at the same time? That’s me today. I couldn’t wake up this morning. The alarm went off at 4 am and I quickly changed it to 6:15 am. It was so bad this morning that I thought about not even getting up to change it but let it ring every five minutes until it was time to get up. That’s how tired I was. I said all that because I think that is a good thing. It means I really did some good yesterday. My lower leg is pretty sore, I kind of figured that though. It is a good sore though like I worked those muscles. I had to write because even though I haven’t done anything today there has been major progress in the last couple days. I’m feeling very motivated right now. Other than that, I think I will rest today and hit it hard tomorrow. I may do some core work and stretching but that’s about it. Race day is coming soon.

I have to say the last couple days I have felt better than I have in two weeks. I didn’t feel that after taking off so many days that a 15 miler was a good thing to do over the weekend. As for my body, I feel a little weak so I will be doing some cross training today (rope jumping) as well as my resistance. The best part about all of that is I can do it all at home since the resistance is mostly the stability ball and dumbbells. The week will mark The Return of Mr. Marathoner. What’s really cool is that I can add to this post a little later to tell you how it went.

As you know a big part of what I am trying to do is drop weight and with that diet plays a key role. I had really been slacking there for the last 4 weeks or so as I wasn’t eating every three hours or at times eating too much. As of yesterday I am back on a strict eating regiment. Today I have a little headache after going through the withdrawals yesterday of wanting “something” else to eat.  I ate properly yesterday so I realized that the headache was because I didn’t drink enough water, that’s an easy fix. Second day today of back to eating properly and I already feel the progress being made. With each day it gets easier.

My mom’s birthday is today. She just keeps on getting better with age. Everything she has ever taught me has come to pass. Happy Birthday!!!

I’ll be posting later to tell you about my workout.

I had to do this at least once (post twice in a day). The next time I am sure won’t be until one of my races, but you never know. The workout wasn’t too difficult today as I went with jumping rope in the garage to get myself back into it. I don’t want to say the “S” word but jumping rope does work your shins quite a bit. The resistance does look easier on paper but it isn’t as easy as I thought. I guess it shouldn’t be. Not much to write because I should be back at the blogging again tomorrow. I do feel very good right now and that’s a good thing.