Running in Tennis Sneakers

I am not an original poster, so I will admit I am copying ShoreTurtle’s format for my 2008 end of year post. I like his no nonsense, cut to the chase style:

2008 Miles:
1401 miles

2008 Races:
5k – 1 race
10k – 1 race
15k – 1 race
10 mile – 1 race
13.1 – 3 races
26.2 – 1 race

Kind of funny, I would have guessed I raced a lot more than that in 2008 until I actually wrote it down. I don’t think I will change too much in 2009. I am not the kind of guy that can go out and race every weekend, it ends up burning me out mentally after a while. I am more of a “set a goal a couple of months out” kind of guy. I like to have that carrot out there to keep me interested. I would like to score a PR in the 5k & 26.2 arena in 2009. More than that, I just want to stay off the injured list.

I would also like to meet up with some more local runners in 2009. Maybe we can pick a Spring/Summer race to meet at (although the competition has the potential to get quite ugly). At the very least maybe do some collaborative training runs together. Hope everyone had a good holiday!

PHOTO: My 2008 shoes, all from Brooks (picture taken on my Precor 956 treadmill).

Addiction (2 pairs)
Trance 7 (2 pairs)
Adrenaline GTS 7 (1 pair)
Adrenaline GTS 8 (1 pair)

The Addictions are being rotated out – I may add a pair of Trance 8 and another pair of Adrenaline GTS 7 in 2009 (defintely like those over the newer GTS 8). I am obviously partial to Brooks – I tried the Saucony Hurricane 10 and hated them, they are now my “walk on the treadmill” shoes. I would love to try Asics but they are so damn expensive – most of these shoes I scored in the $60 dollar range.

It was 17 degrees this morning at 5:30am, with a 9 degree wind chill. Not bad for some parts of the country but pretty damn chilly for around here. The perfect weather to try out some of my latest cold weather running gear. I would upload this picture to Facebook, but most of those non running type people would assume I’ve gotten a job working for the local municipal road crew or something. I figured fellow running dweebs would appreciate the getup though:

A – Princeton Tec Quad headlamp – 4 LED’s of regulated brightness

B – Fleece hat with pull down fleece gator thingy – picked up at the Philly Marathon expo for $10

C – Manzella convertible glove/mittens. Just picked these up from the hunting section at Dick’s Sporting goods. It has to be REALLY cold out or these things are way too hot.

D – Reflective vest, won by Mrs. Progman at one of her running classes. Helpful to keep cars from bouncing off you in the darkness

E – New Balance Running jacket, given to me by my awesome sister in law. Much nicer than the Brooks Element jacket I shelled out $70 for. Fits me better – I think the guys over at New Balance must be tall.

I’m only wearing a long sleeve compression top along with Under Armor cold gear tights with this outfit, and I’m pretty sure I could have gotten by in this if the weather had gone down to zero. Usually for me the only thing I need to worry about are my ears and hands, and I think I’ve got that nailed. Merry Christmas to everyone – stay warm!

I recently got caught up in a 2009 weight loss goal thread on the Marathon Race Training forum at Runnersworld.com (one of my main internet haunts). I watched this thread grow from it’s inception and was amazed at the amount of people who had weight loss goals, especially considering how many of these people are very fast marathoners. The thread evolved into “Before and After” pictures of people showing the effects of how marathoning had impacted their weight loss. I didn’t think I had any good “Before” pictures, but I looked around anyway to see if I could contribute to the thread. I found a good one. Actually I found the perfect one. I don’t know how many people here view the RunnersWorld forums, but I know there are people here with weight loss goals, so I figured I would post this. All I can say is yikes – avert your eyes if your stomach gets upset easily:

Progman – August 2006, @ 240 lbs

Progman – May 2008 (NJ Marathon) , @ 190 lbs

The funny thing is I never really considered myself as having weight issues, even when I was peaking around 240 lbs. I was playing tennis like crazy and going to the gym, so I considered myself perfectly healthy. It wasn’t until I started sucking wind on the tennis court that I started to think about taking the running a little more seriously. Thank god – I can’t imagine what it would have been like if I was completely sedentary, I guess I can see how things can quickly get out of hand if you’re not careful.

So in the weight loss thread I originally committed to dropping another 6 pounds. Now I am starting to think about trying to shave another 6 – 10 lbs, primarily because I want to dramatically improve my marathon time in 2009. I am currently holding fast at 186 lbs, so that means I am shooting for “sub-180”. Hopefully between increasing mileage and making some minor adjustments in the diet this is a doable goal.

I welcome anyone else to take the “Before & After” challenge and throw up some pics. It seems that with the New Year right around the corner this is the perfect time to do it (plus I don’t want to be the only one with an ugly fatty picture up on the web).