Author: Steve

Becki, Meagan, Ben and I are headed to St. Louis this weekend to see the American Idol Tour so I probably won’t get a chance to run. To make up for those missed days I pushed myself to run 6 miles this morning.

Okay, I’ve emailed my family, so the word is out, I can’t back-out now.  BJ has agreed to be my support vehicle as well as valet for people that want to join me for only part of the walk.  Mike has tentatively agreed to walk the full route, so we’re up to 3 people committed to doing 50k, Mike, Meagan and myself.

I’m close to a final route using a new tool Meagan sent me, MapMyRun.com.  After driving the eastern part of my original draft for a route, I’ve completely reworked the eastern leg.  I’m going out and back a long straight stretch of the Greenbelt that follows an old railroad track.  I hadn’t wanted to double-back on any of my route to keep it from being boring, but I also wanted to include as much of the Greenbelt as I can.  By making this change I’ll stay on better paths and hit a part of the Greenbelt that I couldn’t pickup otherwise.  I’ll post a link to my planned route shortly.

I had a good run this morning, matching my 9:29/mile pace for a 4 mile run.  I’ll post my Runkeeper log anytime I better my distance or pace otherwise just know I’m running every day.

I found a nice site to help me map out my route. http://walkjogrun.net gives me a Google map with tools to draw and measure out my route. I’ve developed a preliminary route. I’m not ready to post it just yet, but I will once I’ve decided it’s right for me. One of the functions of this website is a calculator at the bottom that gives me information about the route such as the amount of time to walk/run it based on an average speed I provide. It also tells me how many calories I can expect to burn. The calorie count floored me. My current planned route has me burning over 4000 calories! That’s important information to know, but it never occurred to me that I would expend that much energy. This is reinforcing my need to prepare for this walk/run and not just to “take off” on October 31th. Meagan has already started gathering info on how to prepare and she assures me we can do this.

The weather was perfect this morning for me to push my run a little farther than normal. I ended up running about 1.2 miles further than my previous best and at a respectable 9.36 min/mile pace. My 50k50y is not going to be a run, it’s going to be more walk than run, but running is the best way for me to prepare. My thought is “the farther I can run, the farther I can walk”.

I’ve talked it over with my wife Becki and my daughter, the exercise physiologist, Meagan. They are both supportive of my goal. Now the planning starts. I need to map out a route, invite family and friends, workout the logistics and prepare myself physically. Meagan, who works at the St. Mary’s Weight Management Clinic, will help me get in shape. Becki, one of the most organized people I know, will help my the planning, Lets get running!

— Post From My iPhone