Good bye 2011, Hello 2012

by BuckDaddy on January 19, 2012

Yes I know we are two weeks into 2012 and I’m late with this but better late than never.  2011 was full of wins and failures for me.

Accomplishments

Mile 10! Also racing photos are expensive

My Job – I am loving it.  I am excelling at it.  I enjoy it a lot.  This is the first job where I feel appreciated for my hard work and effort.  Some of the other ones have been fun but I never felt like I truly belonged.

Running – I used to hate running but then I started training for the St. Jude Half Marathon and found I really enjoy it.  I have written about why I started running.  In the 3 short months that I “trained”, I logged over 150 miles for the year.  I put training in quotes because I never really had a plan, I just went out and did 3 – 8 miles whenever I could and felt like it.  I had a plan at one time but then I got hurt due to falling off a ladder.  So after two months in a wheelchair, I gave up on my plan.  I also found a hobby that I really enjoy.

If you had told me a year ago that I would run a couple of 5Ks, a 10K, and half marathon; I would have laughed in your face.

Weight loss – It was an accidental by product of my running and training.  I dropped 40 pounds.  I gained some of it back because of a work related injury that put me in a wheelchair for two months.

Fails

Training – As I stated above, I really didn’t have a plan for my runs.  Sure I researched all sorts of running plans and what to do but I never implemented them.  I just went out and ran.  Reading enough about running and training those are called junk miles.  I did 150 miles of junk.  I had no real purpose to my runs.  The only time I put any effort into running is my 2 5Ks, my one 10K, and my half marathon.  2012 is going to be different.

My blogs and websites – I got so caught up in work and the holidays that I ignored every email and phone call from GoDaddy and let my hosting expired.  My blog went down and I lost everything.  I was so busy that I did not even notice until a co-worker told me.  GoDaddy was awesome with their customer service and helped me get it all back and get it all back up running.

Before it went down I wasn’t doing the greatest job of updating any of them.  I can’t tell you the last time I have thought about www.rulesformydaughter.com.  I am not very good at making sure my other sites are up to date either.  This blog has not been updated regularly.

Work Life Balance – I have always sucked at this, just ask my wife, but I want to be better.  Two factors have attributed to this in the past.  First, I was learning my job and how to do it properly and successfully.  Two, I did not really have the right person on my team with the exception of one and he got prompted very quickly.  I have hired and trained the right person to be an extension of me so hopefully I can start making a change in 2012.

I’ll be back tomorrow with goals for 2012.  Yes I know I am already weeks into 2012 but I have already started these goals.

 

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Race Report – Race for The Cure 2011 Memphis [Running]

by BuckDaddy on November 14, 2011

Race for the Cure Logo

Image via Wikipedia

Race for the Cure Memphis was on October 29th.  This is my first 5K since the mess of the first one.  It is the first one I have ran since I started taking running more seriously and trained.

My mom is a survivor of breast cancer.  Every year, I walk the Fun Mile with her and my family.  Sometimes by accident, we have walked the 5K.   This year I signed up for the run and signed up to be timed.

I arrived early because mom likes to go to the survivor tent.  There was some miscommunication and we had some trouble finding her.  We found her and walked around the expo.  There wasn’t a lot to look at and the massive amount of people makes it very easy to lose people and get lost.  Right before the start, I headed towards the starting line.

Since this was my first 5K, I tried to position myself behind the people who looked like they run all the time and in front of the strollers.  With the massive amount of people, over 22,00 people and over 1000 being timed, it was a little hard to decide where to start.

Mile 1:

We are off.  The first block is slow starting because there are so many people running.  Also I did not line up in the right spot because I spent a lot of time trying to get around speed walkers, walkers, strollers, and people going slower than me.  At one point, I was running down an embankment, around parked cars, and then back on the race route.  Also because of this I spent a lot of energy and went way to fast.  I ended up running an 8 minute mile, something I had never done.  My normal average pace is 13 minutes.

Mile 2:

Since I spent a lot of energy getting around people and running way too fast, I pulled back a little.  I walked some and generally took it easy.  I enjoyed the scenery around me.  People in the neighborhoods, we run through have lawn decorating competitions.  It is fun to have so many people cheering you on.

There was one guy who ran up to every police officer and spectator and shook their hand and thanked them for cheering/guiding the race.  It was endearing at first but after a mile of him running ahead, weaving in and out of the crowd, and nearly knocking me down; he had become annoying so I picked up the pace and ran ahead.

I wish I had a Garmin or a sports watch of some sort to tell me the spilts but that is a present for the future.

Mile 3:

I had to pee.  There was a line for the only port-a-potty along the race route.  I waited in line and wasted a little time using the port-a-potty.

Afterwards, I got moving.  Somewhere along the way, this guy started using me as a pacer.  I didn’t have a problem with it until he became a jerk about it.  This guy was running in a brown mechanics uniform and kept either telling me to pick up the pace or telling me that there was no way a big guy like me was going to beat him.  He would run ahead of me and then start walking.  I kept a steady pace and ended up passing him.  The final stretch of the race is a very large hill and I ended up leaving him behind as I ran up the hill towards the finish line.

Final results: 39:59 with an average pace of 12:54 and 46 of 53 in age group.

Overall, I was very happy with my performance because I wanted to finish in under 40 minutes which I beat it by 1 second.  If I hadn’t stopped to pee, I would have really smoked it.  I wanted to beat my average pace of 13 minutes and I did not.  Most of all, I did not want to come in last place.

Next year, I will line up a little closer to the front.  Also, I would like to find a small, durable camera that I can take pictures of for my race reports.  Some of the decorated lawns would have been awesome to take photos of.

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How I Became A Runner [Running]

by BuckDaddy on October 24, 2011

ING RUN

Image by sophiea via Flickr

First a little history of me:
I never understood runners or the sport of running. Come on, just look at those people that are on the roads in the morning or early evenings. Look at the pain in their faces. Do they look like they are having a good time? I used to mock those people. I never went as far to yell at them while they were running or anything like that. I just never understood it. There is no good reason to run unless you are running from someone, something, or a fire.

In grade school, I was on the track and field team. I lasted one season and that was only because I found the shot put fun. In high school, I was on the swim team. Everyday, we had dry land exercises. It involved lifting weights, riding stationary bikes, and running. I used to agree to extra time on the bike or swim more laps instead of running. In college, I was in the band. Before band practice, there was a group of guys that would run laps before practice. I was not one of them. I tried to join them one day and hated it so much that I never did it again.

I hated running.

Fast forward about almost a year ago:
I was tipping the scales at 320 lbs. and not enjoying it one bit. I only had myself to blame because I walked to Taco Bell almost everyday and ate lunch from there. If it wasn’t Taco Bell then it was Pizza Hut. I had been kicking around the idea of running to lose weight. As much as I hated running, it seemed like the only option as I did not have access to a gym or pool and wasn’t going to pay for it. It just an idea. I hadn’t laced up my shoes once and thought about hitting the pavement.

I was sitting having lunch with a couple of co-workers, one of them who was James from Daily Trainings. The St. Jude Memphis Marathon had just happened and it came up during lunch. I am not sure who first said something about it but the conversation turned toward doing it in 2011. James does half iron mans for fun and I believe is half machine. Someone suggested that James, another co-worker and I all sign up for the marathon and do it next year.

I am not one to commit to something that I know I will never do. I knew there was no way that I would be able to do 26.2 miles a year from then. I agreed to do a half marathon (13.1) but only if the others would do it with me. James said he would do the full if we did the half. We all agreed to do it.

Fast forward to June 2011:
Almost everyday since then, James asked how my training was coming. We both knew I had yet to even walk a step towards training. We both knew that if I committed to something then I would make sure I completed it. Registration opened. I didn’t sign up but I watched the progress on Facebook. I am friends with a lot a people who work at St. Jude (I used to work there) and liked the marathon page so I saw it filling up. With less than six months until the race I decided I needed to start training.

I started running. I downloaded Couch to 5K, Nike +, Runkeeper, and whole slew of apps to help me train (that will be a blog post latter). I hit the road. It wasn’t easy and at first it was not fun. Over time, I have come to enjoy it. I actually get upset when I miss a run because of life. In fact, I am on the way out the door now to log some miles.

Oh and I signed up for the half before it filled up. Due to some circumstances outside his control, the other co-worker didn’t sign up in time. James is running the full marathon.

My training is going well but I did get sidelined by an injury (more on that in a future blog post) but I am back on the road.

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Design or Fix Stuff – Today was a good day.

by BuckDaddy on October 6, 2011

Opening logo to the Star Wars films

Image via Wikipedia

I have been bouncing this idea around in my head for new logo.  It would take some work on my part.  Here’s a little secret, I rather write than design.  I can design and create things but it takes me longer than it does actual graphic designers.

Also as I mention yesterday, about blogging again but this time it would be different, that my comments, zemanta, etc. are broke.  Secret #2, I love doing geeky tech stuff like messing with codes and such but again I would rather be writing.

I had today off so I spent some time inside the guts of my blog.  WordPress is great because not only does it have a great community board that you can usually find the answer to your problem but also other bloggers use it and usually blog about how to fix it.  I limited myself to 30 minutes.  If I couldn’t fix it in 30 minutes then I would try another day.

I had things to do.  Wednesday’s are the day my daughter and I spend time together.  We read comic books, we watch movies, we go to Dunkin Donuts, and build Legos.  This week, I got an extra day off this week so i got to spent Wednesday and Thursday together.  Today I had watching Star Wars Episode IV and building Legos on the list.

I put off the blog and blogging stuff until the end of the night when my kid was asleep.  I managed to fix the almost everything that was broken in 30 minutes of less and able to write this post with the left over time.  The greatest thing is that it didn’t feel like a chore or a job, it felt so nice to blog and not have to worry about anything.

I even spent some time signing up for Pinterest and starting using StumbleUpon again.  I use Facebook and Twitter but those two are fun.  Feel free to follow, friend, or whatever it is called and I will do the same.

No running today but that is okay as well.

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On Blogging: Why I slowed down, no actually quit

October 5, 2011

I used to be prolific blogger. I used to blog two or three times a day. I used to love blogging but then about two years ago, I suddenly stopped blogging. There are a number of reasons, I stopped but the main reason was because I began to hate my blog. I began to hate [...]

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30 Days of Me – Favorite Movie – [About Me]

August 4, 2011

I am extremely grateful for Toni, from A Daily Dose of Toni, was kind enough to create a list of prompts each day for us to follow.  Today is Day 2 of 30 days about Me.  If you told me I have to come up with 30 days worth of posts, I would have given [...]

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30 Days About Me – Favorite Song – [About Me]

August 2, 2011

So it’s day 1 of 30 and the first writing prompt is favorite song.  First off, I want to thank Toni of Daily Dose of Toni for putting together this blog tour. This one is hard because I don’t have one favorite song of all time.  I have lots of songs that I love.  I know [...]

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30 Days of Me – Don’t Call It A Comeback [About Me]

August 1, 2011

I don’t blog as much as I used to.  I open my WordPress dashboard, start a post, save it to draft, forget about it, and never hit publish.  I do this 2 or 3 times a week.  I read blogs every day via RSS read on my phone.  I sometimes even comment but it is [...]

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Crest Pro Health Invigorating Rinse Part 2

April 26, 2011

A couple of weeks, I talked about using Crest Pro Health Invigorating Rinse and how great it was making my my mouth feel.  Just to recap here are some of the benifits of using it. New Crest Pro-Health Invigorating Clean Multi-Protection Rinse gives you an invigorating clean that lets you know you’re working toward a [...]

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Crest Pro-Health Invigorating Clean Multi-Protection Rinse is making my mouth clean

April 8, 2011

Last month, I started using Crest Pro-Health Invigorating Clean Multi-Protection Rinse as part of my daily oral health regimen. I received this bottle for a month long test of the mouthwash.  I have always used mouthwash but not as frequently as I should.  I probably should start flossing as well.  I know people look at [...]

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