Saturday

This morning, we were back at the ORU Aerobics Center for PB practice. After a 750 meter warmup and stretching, Cameron ran 6x500 meters, with a 90 second rest between each repeat. His times were 2:08, 2:08, 2:08, 2:09, 2:09, and 2:06...Cameron is the definition of consistency. After a few minutes rest, he ran 4x200 meters, with a 90 second rest between each repeat. His times for the 200's were 47, 45, 46, and 44 seconds. A 750 meter cooldown brought Cameron's daily mileage to 3.3 miles. His monthly total is now 56.1 miles, and his yearly total is 93.3 miles.

Thursday long run

Cameron's older (by 15 months) brother Brandon, who is 8, had a balloon valvuloplasty done Tuesday at St. Francis Hospital to help relieve his aortic stenosis that he has had since birth. The surgery was a huge success, and Brandon was released from the hospital Wednesday morning. He must remain inactive for the next 30 days as he recovers, but then will have no restrictions, which means he can start running again. This is only a temporary fix to his condition though, and over time, the stenosis will worsen again. However, the cardiologist hopes he will be fine now for another 5-10 years before intervention will again be necessary.

So, after not running for a few days, today seemed like the perfect day for Cameron and I to do our 9 mile long run as we prepare for our early May half marathon. The temperature reached a record high of 81 this afternoon, but the cold front was through, and the wind had shifted to the northwest by the time we headed out around 5 pm. We ran on the River Parks west bank trail today, starting just northeast of the upper parking lot at Turkey Mountain, at the bottom of the relatively steep hills, and ran north for 4.5 miles into a fairly stiff headwind. We hit the turnaround a little over 600 meters north of the Pedestrian Bridge, and returned south aided by a nice tailwind. Cameron ran off and left me in the final few hundred meters, and finished the 9 miles in 1:39:45. Cameron's distance of 9 miles brings his monthly total to 52.8 miles, and his yearly total to 90 miles.

Had darkness not set in, I know Cameron would have completed a marathon, so we are just going to say that he ran a marathon in a world record time of 1:39:45. Cameron is an honest 7-year old kid, and I hope they count this as a world record because had daylight allowed, he would have finished the marathon. In case you are wondering why I am saying this, check out:

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/02/the-biggest-los.html

I especially like Dean's wife Carli's comments:

"Hi! I'm Carli Patterson wife to the biggest loser contestant Dane Patterson. I had herd about your post and wanted to give you an explanation of what happened. I am so proud of my husband and his accomplishments. This has been an amazing experience for our family and unfortunatly this marathon has been a little exaggerated. In this industry you are always on a time frame and sometimes it is out of your control. We had stopped along the way to film at a water station and to make up for lost time our producers drove us ONLY 3 miles up the road. I am sorry if this has offended you in any way, but we are still incredibly happy about the 23 miles we ran. We were not listed as completing the marathon. Dane is an honest LDS Dad and I hope that they do say he completed this marathon because had time allowed he would have!"

Any runner who saw the show this past Wednesday knew immediately that something was amiss with Dean supposedly running a marathon in 3:53. Hopefully, the show will air a correction and clarification at the start of next week's episode.

LaFortune Park

Since I had to work at 2 pm today, and PB practice was not until 5 pm, we headed out to LaFortune Park to run with JATC at 10 am this morning. It was cold and windy, but the sun was out, so it was not as bad as I was expecting. The higher sun angle seems to really help this time of year, even on these cold days, provided of course that the sun is out. Cameron ran two 5K loops around LaFortune, with about a 5 minute break between the two laps. He ran with his friend Hosea, who is also 7 years old, and also really fast for his age. Cameron ran his first 5K in 28:42, and his second 5K in 28:48, so he was very consistent. On the second lap, he left Hosea behind with about 3/4 mile to go, as Hosea said his side was hurting. They ran the first lap clockwise around the park, and the second lap counter-clockwise. I prefer clockwise myself, because then there is a nice downhill finish. Cameron's total distance run today was 6.2 miles, bringing his monthly total to 43.8 miles, and his yearly total to 81 miles.

Thursday

This evening, we made our way to the ORU Aerobics Center once again for PB practice. After a 750 meter warmup and some stretching, Cameron ran 2 sets of 4x200 meters, with 2 minutes rest between each repeat, and an 8 minute rest between sets. These were to be run at a very fast pace, so his target time was 43-45 seconds for each repeat. Cameron's times for the 1st set were 44, 45, 45, and 43 seconds, and for the 2nd set, they were 46, 44, 44, and 43 seconds. After some core work, he did 3 laps around the track where he walked the curves and sprinted the straightaways, which were about 50 meters each in length. Cameron's total distance run was 1.6 miles, bringing his monthly total to 37.6 miles, and his yearly total to 74.8 miles.

Tuesday

It was back to the ORU Aerobics Center this evening for PB practice. After a 750 meter warmup and some stretching, Cameron ran 3 sets of 300 meters/200 meters/100 meters, with about 2 minutes rest between each, and a 5 minute rest between each set. His times for the 300's were 1:09, 1:10, and 1:11, for the 200's 44 seconds, 46 seconds, and 44 seconds, and for the 100's 19 seconds, 20 seconds, and 20 seconds. A 1000 meter cooldown brought Cameron's daily mileage to 2.2 miles. His monthly total is now 36 miles, and his yearly total is 73.2 miles.

Sunday long run

We went to River Parks to do our 8 mile long run this evening, starting from the park at 96th and Riverside and heading north initially, before turning around at the halfway point. Again, we took some walk breaks, but overall our pace was slightly faster than it was last week. We both finished in 1:27:00, running the final 4 miles a bit faster than the first 4 miles. Cameron's distance of 8 miles brings his monthly total to 33.8 miles, and his yearly total to 71 miles.

Sweetheart Run 5K

We braved the 32 degree temperature and 10-15 mph north winds early this morning, and headed to Mohawk Park for the Sweetheart Run 5K. I had to take a couple hours off work this morning so we could do this, and since I had to go in right after the race, Cameron ran it on his own. This was only the 2nd road race he had run without me also running in the race. Cameron finished with a chip time of 26:02, which was excellent considering it was his first 5K race in 4 months, and that he had never run real well in road races when the weather was very cold. After the race was over, we even noticed a few very light snow grains falling. Cameron finished 1st out of 2 in the 8/under age group, 84th out of 250 males, and 114th out of 582 overall. He jogged a 1/2 mile warmup before the race, so his total distance run was 3.6 miles, bringing his monthly total to 25.8 miles, and his yearly total to 63 miles.

Thursday

We were back at the ORU Aerobics Center this evening for another PB practice. After a 750 meter warmup and stretching, Cameron ran 3x1000 meters, with 2 minutes rest between each repeat. His times were 4:46, 4:48, and 4:48, which were right on his target pace of 1:12 per 250 meter lap. Cameron then did 3 laps around the track where he walked the curves and sprinted the straightaways, which were about 50 meters each in length. He then ran for 10 minutes with a target pace of 1:15-1:20 per 250 meter lap, and ended up averaging 1:23...he looked a bit tired during this time. Cameron's total distance run was 3.8 miles, bringing his monthly total to 22.2 miles, and his yearly total to 59.4 miles.

The Sweetheart Run is Saturday morning, but I am scheduled to work. The TATUR Poker Run is also the same morning. I may take off work a couple hours that morning so Cameron can run the Sweetheart Run, but it is going to be quite cold for the first time in about 10 days, so I'm not sure it's worth taking off work for. We'll decide either tomorrow or early Saturday morning whether to do this race or not.

Monday

We gathered at the ORU Aerobics Center for PB practice this evening. After a 750 meter warmup and some stretching, Cameron ran a 400 meter time trial in 1:34, which was 3 seconds slower than his PR. He then ran 6x150 meters, with a walk back to the start line between each repeat for recovery. His time for the first five 150's was 30 seconds, and his time for the last one was 28 seconds. This tells me that the distance was almost certainly a bit shorter than 150 meters, since 32 seconds had been his fastest 150 ever before today. A 500 meter cooldown brought Cameron's daily mileage to 1.6 miles. His monthly total is now 18.4 miles, and his yearly total is 55.6 miles.

Sunday long run

We headed out this afternoon to do our 7 mile long run, and decided to run somewhere we had never run before, so we headed to Skiatook to start at the northern end of the Osage Prairie Trail. We had run part of the southern end of the trail before, but had never made it to the northern end. The first 3.5 miles were straight into a rather strong south wind, so we were happy to reach the turnaround point and run the final 3.5 miles with the wind at our back. The run was slow, as planned, and we even took some walk breaks since I needed them...this will likely become a long run habit for us at least until I can get my endurance up. Cameron took off and left me behind in the final 500 meters, and finished the 7 miles in 1:17:19. Cameron's distance of 7 miles brings his monthly total to 16.8 miles, and his yearly total to 54 miles.

Time trials...and a new PR

PB time trials were held this morning at the ORU Aerobics Center. Cameron ran the 800 and 1600, and chose to run the 800 first. After a 750 meter warmup and some stretching, Cameron was off in the 800 meter run., which he completed in 3:22. While this was 5 seconds off his PR, it was his 2nd fastest 800, which was good because he was running it all by himself. After a 20 minute rest, it was time for the 1600 meter run, which Cameron ran in 7:04. This just beat his previous PR of 7:05 by one second, but it was a great effort, again because he was running it all alone. After a prolonged rest, Cameron ran 200 meters in 45 seconds, and then did a 750 meter cooldown jog. Cameron's total distance run was 2.5 miles, bringing his monthly total to 9.8 miles, and his yearly total to 47 miles.

We plan to head out Sunday afternoon for about a 7 mile long run. Cameron and I are registered to run the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon (Indy Mini) in Indianapolis on May 2nd, so we need to start doing some longer runs once every week or two. The Indy Mini is the largest half marathon in the U.S., with entries capped at 35,000. The race has sold out 6 years in a row, and is already sold out this year. This will be my 3rd time running this race, and of course Cameron's 1st, since 15K is the furthest he has run at one time. The great part about this race is that there are lots of kids who run it, and you get to run a lap on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the middle of the race. The course is also very flat, which is another reason why it is a good choice for a first half marathon.

Tuesday

This evening, we were back at the ORU Aerobics Center for another PB practice. After a 1750 meter warmup and some stretching, Cameron did 3 sets of 10 minutes running/5 minutes stretching. His target running pace was 1:20 per 250 meter lap, and he beat this pace on all 3 sets, averaging 1:16 on the first two sets, and 1:15 on the final set. Cameron's total distance run was 4.8 miles, bringing his monthly total to 7.3 miles, and his yearly total to 44.5 miles.

Groundhog Day

Well the groundhog saw his shadow today, both in Pennsylvania and here in Tulsa as well, and supposedly that means we will have six more weeks of winter. However, the computer models all indicate that we will have several days of unseasonably warm weather starting Thursday and lasting into and likely through the weekend. I'm definitely looking forward to it, and hopefully can get in a day or two of running outside in the warm weather.

As for tonight, we were back at the ORU Aerobics Center for PB practice. After a 1K warmup and some stretching, Cameron ran a workout that was designed to be done at 1-mile race pace. Since his mile PR is 7:05, his target times for the workout were based off about a 7-minute/mile pace. He ran an interval workout that consisted of a 250, a 500, a 250, and another 500, with about a minute rest between each one. His target times were 1:05 for the 250's and 2:10 for the 500's. His actual times were 1:06, 2:15, 1:06, and 2:18. However, due to track congestion, he was forced to do his workout in lane 4, so the actual distance run on each repeat was slightly longer than planned. After a 5-10 minute rest, he ran 6 more 250's with again about a minute rest between each repeat. His times for these were 1:05, 1:07, 1:06, 1:06, 1:05, and 1:02. Again, he had to run them in lane 4 due to other runners on the track. Cameron's total distance run was 2.5 miles, which is also his total for the month. This brings his yearly total to 39.7 miles.