Yeah, that Mrs. Progman, 2 days after her racing debut, knocking 3 1/2 minutes off of her finish time. The determined look, the high finishing kick, the joy of smoking the dude in the blue behind her – I would say a sub-30 is definitely in the cards in the not too distant future, wouldn’t you?
(BTW, I’m almost finished with the book – I think I will be able to officially cut it loose in the next post)
Wow, what a beautiful day for a race (sarcasm, it poured a couple of hours before the start which provided a muddy course and humid conditions). Mrs. Progman was fired up and not intimidated in the least by the elements. This race is run on one of the most popular & challenging cross country courses around, containing several hills including the infamous “Bowl”. Michele’s finish time was a remarkable 37:28 given the gnarly conditions. A great debut, a great finish time, and a great motivator to run a flat 5k to beat the 37:28.
With the Women’s 101 Group
With the kiddos pre race
The start or the race
Check out the finishing kick in the home stretch
With friends at the finish
Then the kids races – Katie in white (speed & intensity)
Christopher finished strong despite running with only one shoe for 3/4 of the race
I traveled light and didn’t take a digital camera, although I did have the trusty Blackberry with me, so I snagged the below pictures, starting with Ilie Nastase. He was moving quickly through the crowd when I pounced on him.
With the trophy (there are so many people I want to thank…)
British phenom Andy Murray (oh wait, that’s my brother in law Scott)
Fernando Gonzalez and Bobby Reynolds
Fernando Gonzalez
Nikolay Davydenko
Fernando Verdasco
Murphy Jenson broadcasting for USA Network
Living close to NY City definitely has it’s advantages – Broadway, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rockefeller Center at Christmas time, Broadway (yeah, I mentioned it twice, I love Broadway) and this time of year, the US Open. I’m taking today off and heading to Flushing Meadows – an awesome time for anyone even remotely interested in tennis, and I am a whole lot more interested than remotely. Some of the matches I hope to be seeing today:
Nikolay Davydenko [5] v. Agustin Calleri
Marin Cilic [30] v. Robby Ginepri
Carlos Moya v. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga[19]
Bobby Reynolds v. Fernando Gonzalez[11]
Elena Dementieva [5] v. Anne Keothavong
Tommy Robredo [15] v. Marat Safin
And the list goes on – sorry guys, no reading today.
And did I mention My wife is running her first 5k tomorrow.
********* WOOHOO GO MICHELE GO ***********
There it is, the local high school track. It’s about a two mile bike ride from my house, which serves conveniently as the perfect 10 minute warm up and cool down in the morning. I love the track, and since it figures prominently in the Furman training plan, I get to experience my love for it once a week for 16 weeks. There’s just something manly about running track intervals. There’s always the odd running shoe or sweatshirt laying around, like the track swallowed up some runner and spit them out in little nasty pieces (last week there was a used condom, who’s watching these kids?). So this morning it was 5 x 1000 meters with a 400 meter rest interval. Good stuff – when you’re on that last interval and your heart is pumping at 94% of your maximum heart rate and the sweat is pouring off you, you appreciate your passion for running and the effects it has on your body – I love it.
– I love getting up at 5:00am to do this stuff
– I love that my VO2 Max is improving
– I love that my wife is talking about her pacing strategy for Saturday’s race
Oh, and I love that I received the book in the mail yesterday (haven’t gotten too far but Dean hasn’t said anything so far about the track, what a wuss!)
That’s the way I feel – like Ralphie on Christmas morning. Is today the day the book gets here? To anyone not in the know, I’m talking about Ted’s brainchild, the Dean Karnazes book 50 blogger challenge. The anticipation is killing me, so much pressure, so many questions (Should I call out sick? What if it’s not here today? What if there are a bunch of really big words in the book? If I get it do I bail on my wife’s race Saturday to read it? What would Ted do?…)
I’ve been living with a hole in my heart for the last couple of weeks. My old Nike Dri Fit running hat morphed in grossness to the point where it was getting up on it’s own to run at 5:30am everyday. It ended up in the trash – it had to be done, although it was difficult nonetheless. So imagine my glee when I was leafing through the clearance pages of the latest Road Runner Sports catalog and happened upon the hat of my dreams. Hidden amongst other clearance gems like the Nike HatPhone and the Adidas Toiletry Kit was the IntelliSafe ID Hat. It’s bright, fluorescent, lime green, yellow, something or other with a spot for an id on the bottom of the bill and (wait for it) a blinking red light on the back. It’s tacky, it’s cheesy, the only thing it’s missing is a little propeller on the top – I think I love it. And I was able to wrestle it away from Road Runner Sports for $4.98 + free shipping. I am pretty cheap – I would run with a dead chicken on my head if it was only $4.98 and had sweat wicking properties.
So last weekend I went to open the slider to our patio to hit the barbecue and was greeted by a 3 inch Praying Mantis on the glass part of the slider. Being the youngest of three boys, I grew up keeping a weird assortment of things as pets that most people would probably dispatch with a rolled up magazine. So my knee jerk reaction to the mantis? I quickly retreated to one of the cricket strongholds in our backyard and snagged it a meal (after rallying my kids to watch this marvel of nature). I must have opened and closed that glass slider a dozen times while barbecuing, and that damn mantis never blinked, he was so focused on devouring that cricket (probably a proverb in there somewhere, feel free to dig it up for me). Anyway, my wife was even weirder than me and managed to snag it on video – this youtube clip is not for the faint of heart:
The only Grand Slam tennis event to take place on North American soil starts this week. I am taking the day off on Friday and will be at Flushing Meadow in NY to take it all in. Hopefully we can see some American tennis players advance into the later rounds in the only American Grand Slam (no chance any US men get into the quarters based on recent events, I dare you guys to prove me wrong). So, next weekend’s dream schedule looks something like this:
Fri – 6 mile tempo run in the AM
– US Open in the PM
Sat – Saturday in the Park 5K (wife’s inaugural race event)
Sun – 1st 20 mile training run of the Philly Marathon training schedule
Mon – Labor Day – Pier Village 5k (not sure if either of us are running this, game day decision)
Go MICHELE (6 days and counting)
Paula Radcliffe? Joan Benoit Samuelson? No, ITS MRS. PROGMAN2000!!! In a rare moment of weakness, she made the mistake of saying out loud in front of me that she thought it would be cool to train for a 5k. Mind you, this was back in late March/early April when I was training hot and heavy for the NJ Marathon – I’m pretty sure she thought I was delirious enough from training that it would have gotten past me. But with a little snooping around the JSRC I found the Women’s Running 101 program. These guys have been around for a while and have gotten rave reviews for their women’s only running programs. The summer class started in June, meets once a week, and outlines a 3 day a week training program targeted towards a goal race at the end of August. And guess what baby – it’s almost the end of August!
So next Saturday (8/30) is the Saturday in the Park 5k. It’s hosted by my running club (JSRC) and advertised as the largest women’s only race event in the state (a little sexist if you ask me). Proceeds go to three different charities that support women and families in need. But let’s face it, it’s not about the running club. It’s not about the 3 months of training. It’s not even about the women and families in need. This is all about my honey busting out her first race. She’s an animal – she is already talking about running at the Manasquan Reservoir with other girls from the class (hey, wait a minute, that’s one of my training places). She is already talking about the NEXT 5k (hmm..). I think she has even already marked off the Born to Run 5 Mile in November – yikes! But first she has to knock off the Saturday in the Park 5k. A challenging course by anyone’s standards – the legendary “Bowl” there has been making high school cross country kids vomit for years. But the bowl has never met Mrs. Progman2000.
Woohoo Go Michele Go!
Being a programmer supporting a product which some clients deem mission critical, I find myself on a 5 week rotation where I am on call for 24 hour support. I typically HATE these weeks where I am shackled to my phone, especially when it is during marathon training. During the winter it is not so bad when you are running in a jacket with pockets. During the summer when you can get by on nothing other than shorts it stinks to have to carry a phone. However, I decided to make the most of it this morning – since I was lugging my blackberry, I was going to snap some pictures. I set my alarm for 4:45am (crazy? perhaps) and was able to get over to Bodman park to start running around 5:40. Here is my run:
Mile 1 – the receding of a Harvest Moon (didn’t expect to snap a picture here until I saw this)
Mile 3.1 – At the top of Kick Ass Hill (yeah, it’s called that for a reason)
Mile 5.5 – The famed Stone Church, as seen from a JSRC water stop
Mile 6.38 – Note to self, remember to watch for cars
Mile 7.22 – The last nice water view before another brutal hill climb into the woods
Mile 11.73 – The view of New York across the water from the top of Beacon Hill
I ended up doing a little over 15 miles. At least 1/4 of that is through the wooded trails of Harthshorne & Huber Woods. Photos of the woods rarely translate well and end up looking like a bore (especially from a camera phone) . However, those sections of running the woods are far more intoxicating than even the most riveting stretch of urban scenery. This will probably be the last time I hit up Bodman for a while – my Sunday mileage is going to creep higher and I will have to start running it from my front door in the interest of conserving time. But I’ll be back, Bodman, bet on it!
What’s this? A blog entry not related to running or tennis? My philanthropic wife and children hosted a lemonade stand/toy sale Saturday to benefit the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center. For anyone interested doing this type of thing, the Sunkist Company is currently hosting a program for children ages 7 – 12 who want to run a lemonade stand for charity. My kids have been wanting to do a lemonade stand since summer began, so it turned into the perfect opportunity to raise money for a good cause. We ended up netting $185 which our kids will be able to present to the Child Advocacy Center during a live radio fund raising event in September. Pretty cool stuff.
