My Race Strategy

So, I go to the sports medicine podiatrist today [Perry Julien, D.P.M. with the Atlanta Foot and Ankle Center] for my 6-week check up on the plantar fasciitis and it’s ALL GOOD!!! but that’s another post… Anywho, he asked me what my race strategy was for the remainder of the year. I’d never really thought about a race strategy before, but when I told him my plans, it sounded pretty good. This is what I’ve been doing for the past couple of years. The climax of the year is of course the ING Marathon at the end of March. But how do I get to that point? Well, it all starts after the marathon and that’s the beginning of the running year for me.

April is a pretty easy month with just 3 mile runs 3 times a week. I’m recovering from the marathon.

May is another easy month, but I start picking up the pace, adding some mileage to even include a 10-miler at the Rock and I run my first race after the marathon, the Courthouse 5K [3.1 miles] in Fayetteville.

June is when I run my first 10K [6.2 miles] of the running year, the Army HOOAH! 10K. Its a good first 10K because it’s almost like totally flat. I continue to run 3-5 miles 3 times a week and include some 10-milers at the Rock.

July is of course the Peachtree Road Race, another 10K. After the Peachtree, I start working in some hill work, continue 3-5 mile runs 3 times a week and a few 10-milers for July and August.

September, Labor Day is the U. S. 10K Classic on the VERY hilly course of Cobb Parkway. After this I again start adding mileage, mostly 5 miles 3 times a week, still a few 10-milers at the Rock.

October is the Peactree Classic 15K [9.3 miles]. I continue to up the mileage this month, 5 mile runs 3 times a week and include a 15-miler at the Rock.

November is the first 1/2 marathon [13.1 miles] of the year, the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day 1/2 Marathon [this year named The Weather Channel 1/2 Marathon]. I increase the mileage again this month, getting my weekly base up to 25 miles.

December I start the 18-week training program for the ING in March. Oh, and there’s the Jingle Jog in Peachtree City; just a 5K, but you get to wear a Santa hat 🙂

January there’s the Atlanta Track Club 10K in Peachtree City. It’s usually pretty chilly to say the least!

March? The first Saturday in March is always the Silver Comet Trail 10K, the BEST Peachtree qualifier because it’s so flat. Then… the ING GA Marathon!

That’s pretty much my race strategy for the year. August and February are the only months that I don’t have a favorite race scheduled. Maybe I’ll work on that 🙂

6.30.08

The last day of June 2008. The year, sort of officially 1/2 over.

GREAT weekend with 12+ miles on Saturday. I feel really good and slept well.

3 fast miles on the mill this a.m. May be the only run I’ll get in this week before the Peachtree on Friday, IF I get the Cordisone injection this afternoon. We’ll see… Funny thing, my foot feels really, really good. Doesn’t even hurt after our 12-miler on Saturday. Maybe this treatment is working! WooHoo!

6.28.08

GREAT out and back on the Peachtree Road Race course through Buckhead with my running partner and new friend LuAnn. We are going to meet Friday morning and run the Peachtree together since my running partner will be out of town.

World awaits North Korea’s next step

By handing over about 60 pages to Chinese officials in Beijing on yesterday, North Korea won an immediate reward from President Bush: the end of some economic sanctions and a pledge to remove it from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

A timeline of nuclear weapons development in North Korea:

1986: North Korea starts operation of a 5-megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon after seven years of construction with Soviet help.

1994: North Korea and the United States sign an agreement under which the North shuts down the plutonium-based Yongbyon nuclear reactor in exchange for help in building two nuclear reactors for producing electricity.

Jan. 29, 2002: President Bush labels North Korea, Iran and Iraq an “axis of evil.”

Jan. 11, 2003: North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Feb. 10, 2005: North Korea announces it has nuclear weapons.

Oct. 9, 2006: North Korea conducts an underground nuclear test blast.

Feb. 13, 2007: North Korea agrees at six-nation nuclear talks, which include China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S., to take initial steps to disarmament, after Washington helps free $25 million frozen in North Korean accounts.

Sept. 6, 2007: Israeli warplanes bomb a Syrian nuclear reactor site allegedly built with North Korean design help.

Nov. 5, 2007: North Korea starts disabling the Yongbyon reactor under the watch of U.S. experts.

Feb. 26, 2008: The New York Philharmonic performs in Pyongyang, in the highest-level cultural exchange between the U.S. and North Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Thursday: The White House says it will lift some trade sanctions and pledges to remove North Korea from a U.S. terrorism blacklist after Pyongyang releases a long-delayed accounting of its nuclear weapons activities.

Source: The Associated Press

6.27.08

WW last night was good, -3.4 lb. for the month.

Had a good night’s sleep last night and woke up early; even made it into the office early.

Tomorrow my running partner and I will run the Peachtree Road Race course out and back for a total of 12 miles. Actually, we’ll probably walk some of the back. She’s already started her training for the KC Marathon and is scheduled for 10 tomorrow. So, maybe we’ll do 6 out, 4 back and walk the last 2.

Had the Hoffman’s fresh blueberries for breakfast this morning over my cereal and WoW! are they ever yummy. Even makes me more determined to get some blueberry bushes of my own.

Sari Beri comes home from camp tomorrow and I know she’ll be glad to get home. We’ll be glad for her to get home! It’s been WAY too quiet around the house and we’re out of chocolate chip cookies!

Got a letter from Jon Morgan yesterday or the day before actually and he says when he get’s home after his graduation from the Marine Boot Camp on August 22, that he wants some of Sari Beri’s world-famous chocolate chip cookies as well 🙂 It was good to hear from him!

Still no response from Facebook

A coworker of my bff has a granddaughter [Ashley] that’s five years old and has been battleing a brain tummor since earlyier this year. Her parents keep an online journal to let frineds and family members know what’s going on in Ashley’s life. Amoung other things in today’s post, Ashley’s father writes this: “I just really want us to be who God would have us be as we go through this.” WoW! Isn’t that what it’s all about!?! That’s what it’s all about whether we have a daughter battleing cancer or whatever we are going through in life. So good to have that reminder!

“The external substance of a thing never lies in the thing itself, but in the quality of our reaction toward it. If in hard times we are kept from resentment, held in silence and filled with inward sweetness, that is what matters. The event that distressed us will pass from memory as a wind that passes and is gone, but what we were while the wind was blowing upon us has eternal consequences.”

Facebook Bullying?

Is Facebook bullying it’s users?

Yesterday I receive the following email from the Facebook Team:

Hello,
You made one or more wall posts that violated our Terms of Use. Among other things, posts that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed. We also take down posts that attack an individual or group, or advertise a product or service. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in your account being disabled.
If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page at http://www.facebook.com/help.php?topic=wposts.
The Facebook Team

to which I replied via three different avenues, however, I have yet to received an answer.

At first, I thought it was SPAM since I have in no way made any wall posts, nor would I ever, that are hateful, threatening, or obscene. I have not attacked an individual or group, or advertise a product or service. Then a notice showed up on my Facebook Home Page so I knew it wasn’t SPAM.

I am still baffled at what the email was regarding as the following three wall posts, the only I made yesterday, are not in any way a violation that I can see.

THESE ARE THE THREE WALL POSTS I POSTED ON YESTERDAY:

1. On the Wall of the Event: “2008 Peachtree Road Race”
“Not Yet Received Your Race Number?
First of all, don’t panic. It happens every year where a few hundred packets don’t make it to their rightful owners for various reasons. The very helpful Atlanta Track Club staff and volunteers will work with you to remedy the situation. So here’s what to do. Follow these instructions exactly and it will help us get you your packet much more quickly.
1. Please send an email to office@atlantatrackclub.org. Or, if you’d prefer, call 404.231.9064 x18 but no need to do both.
2. You will then be given further instructions. Once you have provided the required information, sit back, relax and start mentally preparing for your race.
3. We kindly request that you not call or email us more then once because it slows down the process of getting you your packet.”

I have requested the Facebook Team to kindly explain their position so that I would have a better understand of their reasoning.

2. On a friend’s Wall
“NICE HAIR! 🙂 it looks great on you!”

3. On another friend’s Wall
“OUCH! What’s the recovery time with that? And did they say anything about increasing your calcium intake?”

THESE ARE THE KINDS OF WALL POSTS FACEBOOK DOES NOT PERMIT [per their website]:

Wall/Discussion Board Posts that are not permitted include:
* Posts that advertise a product, service, website, or commercial event
* Posts that spam users by directing them to another group
* Posts that are unprovoked and harass group members and/or the group’s purpose

I don’t see that any of these wall posts are a violation in any.

We’ll wait to see if the “Facebook Team” responds. In the meantime, I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience?

6.26.08

Finished up another week of the WW QuikTrack System, AKA points tracker and it was a good week, -2.4 lb., especially considering it included 3 days at the MOA. Tonight I will weigh in at WW for the month. That should go pretty good. On to week 11 of the 12 week plan…

3 miles on the mill late a.m. Really didn’t feel like it but felt better once I got started. It’s like that a lot. Getting started is the hardest part. It’s that way with many things in life

I really didn’t sleep well last night and the night before wasn’t very good either. I’ve had two days this week now when I’ve woke up aching all over feeling like it was such a chore to even breath. IDK what’s wrong still. I’ve been to two doctors and everything seems to check out fine. One says perimenopause can make you have these symptoms. If this is PERImenopause [peri which means pre], I SURE don’t want to see menopause! I wouldn’t want to live like this day in and day out. The symptoms seem very similar to what my sister-in-law suffers with Fibromyalgia — musculoskeletal pain, severe fatigue, and disturbed sleep. I had not mentioned Fibromyalgia to either doctor and don’t even know how they would diagnose it. It’s like having the flu, just the achy all over feeling. That’s how it feels some days. And this week there’s been two of those days already 😦

I read this recently: “Diagnostic Criteria The difficulty with diagnosing fibromyalgia lies in the fact that, in most cases, laboratory testing appears normal and that many of the symptoms mimic those of other disorders. A definite diagnosis of fibromyalgia syndrome should only be made when no other medical disease can explain the symptoms. This is to say, fibromyalgia is a diagnosis of exclusion”

I don’t even want to go there.