I have syndicated the posts here, but the blog itself has much richer content.

Sorry - I got overblogulated

The result is a new web site called Half Training Schedule and it includes a blog.  I can see that with the demands this new site will place on me for managing it, including a newsletter service, I shall have even less time to post to this blog.  So I have added an RSS feed from the blog page to help you to see if there is anything in the blog of interest.

Meanwhile, why not check out the site at http://halftrainingschedule.com?  Even if you don’t plan to run a half, the training schedules there are beneficial for fitness and health runners, like me, as opposed to competitive athletes.  (I’m assuming that if you are reading this, you are not a competitive athlete!)

Well, right now he is in a contest being held by Country Weekly, where people can vote for the “sexiest man in Country Music”.

He’s a Heart graduate (for those of you in Klemmer) and also happens to be my stepson.

If you’re into country music, you may have heard Montgomery Gentry’s song “Back When I Knew It All”, which he co-wrote, and which was recently a #1 country hit. But whether or not you like country music, can you please vote for him?

Here is the link:

http://www.countryweekly.com/sexiest_man/vote/survey/494

Thanks for your support, and keep on running!

(BTW, you might enjoy his music — check out trentwillmon.com).

This is a limited time offer — it may be withdrawn at any time, so if you don’t find it, that’s because I decided to start charging for it.

It looks a lot different from my other site . I’m still trying to figure out the best way of combining them (or even whether that’s a good idea). The first site is more of a web service, with weekly e-mail newsletters, but this is a resource site with lots of links. It also has several articles posted, some of which were written for me and others that I took from my newsletters.

Meanwhile, in other news, Billie is busy working on a similar site for her own enterprise. It will be called Empowering for Change and should be available in a week or two. We’re obviously on the way to becoming technogeeks!

We went to Aruba for 8 days, and I only succeeded in running twice. The wind was howling all the time, even more than usual for Aruba, I’m told. And the humidity was low — I’m not used to that!

You see, we were on the leeward side of a desert island, so even though we were in the Caribbean, it was dry. We took a Hobie 16 out for a spin one day and rapidly found out how out-of-shape I was! With the wind really cranking (and gusting, too) I found myself working muscles that I didn’t know I had. For a day or two after, I really felt my age.

We did all the usual things: got too much sun, ate too much, drank enough(!) and toured the island. We had thought about windsurfing (too windy), kiteboarding (too much work), scuba diving (too much effort). So, apart from the Hobie cat, all we did was snorkel.

We got back just in time to get to Trent’s Honky Tonk Tailgate Party in Katy, TX. Our flight had been delayed, so we went straight from the airport to the show, which is on his current tour. Met a lot of friends and family there, and spent the night in Houston before returning home.

(Since then, I just heard that he has a #1 hit! “Back When I Knew It All”, recorded by Montgomery Gentry, was co-written by Trent and just made #1. Great job, Trent!)

After 2 days at home, we left for Vegas, where we had booked a Wyndham Party Weekend to see Bette Midler. Great show, but Vegas is not my favorite place. I managed to get a couple of runs in before we left, but decided not to even try in Vegas.

It was great to get back to running when we got home (another flight delay — this has happened on our last four flights!) After an easy run to get back into it, I enjoyed a 100 minute run in the heat and humidity. It felt great at the time, but after I got back I realized that my clothes were as wet as if I’d been swimming in them!

Four glasses of Gatorade later, I felt refreshed. My hydration technique for those occasions is to drink a sports drink before I go, carry water with me, and drink more sports drinks when I get back. The theory is that after about 30 minutes my glycogen stores are depleted and I’m burning fat, so I choose not to consume anything that will interfere with the fat burning. It seems to work, because after all that overeating my weight is now back to where it was at the beginning of the month!

I wish I had some good pictures to show this time, but they’re all on Billie’s camera and she’s been too busy getting her latest book out to download them.

Until next time …

Alan

I have been traveling a lot lately and unable to keep up my
running

Today, I finally got back to it and, after the initial agony, it
felt great. I congratulate myself on being sensible about it.

You see, when I come back to running after a layoff, the
temptation is to run hard and fast. You know by now this is not
brilliant. So do I, but the temptation is always there.

What I do is force myself to take an easy run after a layoff.
That way I’m even more motivated to go out hard the next day.
Also, my muscles feel better for it.

So tomorrow I’ll go out hard. But I like to keep my schedule
flexible, so I’ll decide later what I’ll do. I’ll see how the
weather is, how I feel, and then either do a long run, a pace
run, hill repeats, intervals or a tempo run.

I generally work out my schedule a week or two in advance, but I
still like to keep it flexible. Some days I’m pumped, some days
I’m low on energy. Since no-one’s forcing me to follow a
schedule, I let it vary according to how I feel.

Let’s say my schedule shows hill repeats, but when I get out
there I realize my energy is low that day. Instead of forcing
myself to do hill repeats and hating them, I may switch to a
tempo run. I can still make it hard enough to feel I’ve achieved
something, but it fits better with my lower energy.

Another time, I might go out intending to do a tempo run and
decide that I’m feeling pumped. After my warmup, I’ll switch to
intervals, a pace run or hill repeats. The first ten minutes, my
warmup, gives me time to decide.

A rigid schedule may be important if you’re training for a
special event, but if you’re just running for health and fitness
it can be a hindrance. So be flexible. You’ll enjoy it more.

And if you enjoy it, you’ll want to keep running!

Read what she’s done.  She’s one of my co-writers in the upcoming Wake Up Women. See what she’s doing for other women running.

Help me promote my new book by voting for MaryKayat http://abcnews.go.com/abcnewsnow/pictureofhealth.

Alan

I have a brand new website which is now being built for me.  In a few days it will be available.

By way of background, I started developing a website and newsletter service for beginning runners in January, 2008.  It has become very popular with a select group of charter members, and was a great tool for testing ideas.  I shall continue to use it as a pilot program.

However, now I am developing a serious professional site geared to people who want to find an enjoyable way to get fit and healthy (or to stay that way).  I’ll post some of the material from other site here in this blog, so you can get a flavor of what I’m writing about.

Enjoy!

Alan

Capitol
10K

Yesterday I hit another of my goals! I ran the Capitol 10K in
Austin, Texas. There were 6,566 timed runners, and I was not
last! (I was #6,355, so there were 211 slower than me.)

I don’t know how many total runners there were, as there were a
bunch more fun runners, many in costume. All I know for sure is
that they were still finishing some time after I had stopped for
refreshments, so I felt really good about that. Since this is my
first race in nine years, I was excited, and it turned out just
great!

For those interested in statistics, my time was 1:34:27.8 and I
was 10th out of 18 in my age group. I don’t know if he was the
oldest runner, but a 97-year-old crossed the finish line about
20 minutes after me. The winner’s time, by the way, was just
over 30 minutes; his pace was exactly 5 minutes per mile. (I
console myself by noticing that he is my junior by almost 40
years!)

If you’re thinking about a race, you’ll find a big race is a
wonderful way to boost your enthusiasm. This was the biggest
race I have run, and I have found that the bigger the race the
better my chance of not being last! Not that it really matters
– the last person to finish gets cheered by the crowd almost as
much as the winner.

My wife took the photo of me finishing — I had a great kick at
the end and passed the finish line before she saw me! They
announced my name just as I crossed the line, so the shot is a
little late.

Remember, today is the last day of the Road Runner Sports
sale.

One of the great things about them is that you can run in their
shoes for 60 days and then return them if they don’t work for
you. Where else can you get a deal like that?

Sincerely

Alan
Jenkin Fitness Runner with a Beginner’s Mind

Huntsville,
Texas

alan@gettingstartedrunning.com